Paul writes, finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it's safe. Now, you
know the theme of the book of Philippians is to rejoice. But
we're not told in Scripture to just randomly rejoice, you know,
running around shouting hallelujah and making a spectacle of ourselves. We're to rejoice in the Lord. Whatever state we find ourselves
in, whether it's sorrow or joy or anywhere in between, the believer
always has reason to rejoice in the Lord, to rejoice in Christ.
We can rejoice always, whatever state we find ourselves in, in
His greatness. Consider our Savior as none other
than God Almighty. And because He's God, He has
the power to save to the uttermost all that come to Him. We can
rejoice in the incarnation of Christ. Just rejoice in the amazing
truth that our minds can never comprehend that God actually
became a man so he could become our substitute. We can rejoice
in the amazing mercy and love of our Lord that he would condescend
so far in order to save his people from their sins. That's reason
to rejoice. We can rejoice in the sufficiency
of Christ's righteousness because He is God. His righteousness,
imputed to us, actually enables us to stand perfect and holy
before the Father. We can rejoice in His sacrifice
because He's God. His sacrifice actually did put
away all the sin that was laid on Him because that's God's blood
that was shed as an atonement for our sins. Now we can rejoice
in that, always. We rejoice in His purpose and
His providence. Because He's God, there's no
doubt. He will accomplish His purpose. He will arrange the
events of providence to bring His people unto Himself. My sheep
shall hear my voice. I'll be sure of it. And we can
rejoice in Him for that. We heard, didn't we? That's His
purpose. Now we can rejoice. We can rejoice
in His intercession for us. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was the perfect Savior, because He's God's Son, we know He's
always heard when He intercedes for us. We can rejoice in the
wisdom of God's salvation. And this salvation that Scripture
tells us about, the law is honored and magnified, yet the law is
taken out of the way so that we're redeemed without our obedience
to the law. Now, we can rejoice in that wisdom.
And the more we rejoice in Christ, the less likely it is that somebody
will be able to draw us away from Christ. And that's what
Paul begins talking about here, being drawn away from Christ.
And the more we rejoice in Him, the less likely it will be that
we are drawn away from Him. Paul says to write the same things
to you. To me it's not grievous, but
for you it's safe. It is never tiresome for a believer
to tell the story of God's grace one more time. I love it. Don't
you just love to tell the story of God's sovereign grace, His
mercy, just one more time. And the believer never gets tired
of hearing it over and over again. It's not grievous. It's a joy. This song of redemption that
the church sings, we sing it over and over and over again
and never get tired of the melody. Just never get tired of the words
of it. And it's safe for us To hear the gospel, the same story
of the gospel over and over and over again. The believer who's
got ears to hear that God gives, you don't want to hear something
new. It's the same gospel that was preached to Adam in the garden.
And Adam fell. God preached the gospel to him,
told him he's sinned in the seed of woman that will crush the
serpent's head. The same gospel that Moses wrote
about, the same gospel Noah preached as he was building the ark. The
same gospel Abraham believed. Christ said he saw my day and
was glad. He rejoiced in Christ Jesus.
The same gospel that David wrote about. The same gospel that Isaiah
wrote about. The same gospel these apostles
preached. The same gospel the reformers gave their lives for. And the same gospel we preach
today. It's the eternal gospel of God's grace. It never changes.
I thought this week, how many times have you heard a message
from Isaiah 53? Dozens of times. Yet you never
get tired of it. You learn something new every
time. The Lord's table. We observe
the Lord's table. We hear a message from the Lord's
table. And it's never tiresome because
it's the gospel of Christ. It's his blood that he shed for
us, his body that he gave broken for us. You never get tired of
that and you learn something new every time. And Paul says
for us, it's safe. It's safe to hear the gospel
over and over again. One of the old translations translated
that safe for you as it's a guard for you, a garrison for you that
will protect you. It's safe for us to hear the
gospel over and over again because it keeps our hearts and our thoughts
fixed on Christ, the chief cornerstone. Hearing the gospel repeatedly
protects us from errors and from false teachers. It'll guard us
against self-righteousness. It'll guard our errors of thought
and errors of conduct. And we hear the gospel over and
over again, safe for us, because we remember it better. Now, I
just remember things better when I hear them over and over and
over again. When I was in college, after
about a year and a half, I learned I had to study. Every day. And
when I repeated those, it took me a year and a half. I was a
slow learner, but once I got it, I got it. I learned if I
studied every day and repeated those things over every day,
I could get good grades if I just repeated them. The gospel is
the same way. Naturally speaking, we're very
thick headed. We need to hear this over and
over and over again. So remember it better. So we'll
understand it better. So we'll grow in an understanding
of this gospel when it's repeated to us. We don't get it all the
first time. Don't get it all the second time.
Don't get it all the third time. As long as we live in this life,
we're not going to get it all. This is inexhaustible. So it's
safe for us to hear it over and over again so we understand it
better. And Paul says in verse 2, beware of dogs. Beware of
evil workers. Beware of the concision. Beware. Because Satan always attacks
where the Gospels preached. He always will. Even here in
the early church already, they had to beware of these false
teachers because Satan was attacking where the Gospels preached. And
what happened here in Philippi is these Judaizers had crept
in and they were trying to mix grace with works of the law. And the big work of the law that
they could not let go of was circumcision. They said, oh yes,
the blood of Christ is necessary for salvation. You've got to
have that substitute. We can see that, but you've got
to be circumcised too in order to be saved. They said it's necessary.
And Paul calls men that teach like that, dogs. That's a term
of insult that they used at that time. They called the Gentiles,
Gentile dogs. Someone to be looked down on,
not even human. He calls them dogs because they're
dogs. returning to their vomit. They
had the grace of God in Christ Jesus preached to them, and they
turned back to the law. They went back to their vomit.
Look over in Isaiah 56. This wasn't a new problem with
Paul. Isaiah dealt with this problem, and he called them the
same thing Paul called them, dogs. In Isaiah 56, verse 10. His watchmen are blind. They're
all ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They
cannot bark. Sleeping, lying down, loving
to slumber. Yea, they're greedy dogs, which
can never have enough. And they are shepherds that cannot
understand. They all look to their own way,
every one for his own gain from his own quarter. They're greedy
dogs. They're in it for themselves
to see what they can get in it for themselves. They're not going
to bark. They're not going to warn you
of sin and they're not going to tell you where salvation is
really found. They're in it for their belly.
They'll tell you whatever it takes to keep you happy, to keep
you putting money in the offering for their own profit. They're
in it for their own belly. They make merchandise of men's
souls. And Paul calls them dogs. And he calls them evil workers.
Mixing any of our works. I don't care what work it is,
what activity it is that you attach to the gospel, to make
it necessary for our salvation, is an evil work. Paul says these
men, they're religious, but they're evil workers. And we're told
to beware of these men. And you've got to be very careful
here. They're crafty. These fellows weren't coming
right out in the open, just preaching 100% heresy and just, you know,
denying Christ altogether and preaching just the law. They're
very crafty. They handle God's Word deceitfully.
They twist it for their own purpose, for their own gain. They make
their message sound very, very similar to the Gospel. But they're
adding something to it. It's the Gospel plus. And you
start hearing that. Now you beware, Paul says. Beware
of the concision. That word concision is mutilators.
They're willing to mutilate the flesh for spiritual gain. They
make sacrifices of the flesh so that they can appear more
holy to men. And in our day, that's not so
much a problem, is it? You know, that we make circumcision
necessary for salvation or, you know, people aren't going cutting
themselves like they did in Isaiah's day. You know, they're cutting
themselves on the blood flow and jumping up and down on the
altar, trying to get their idol to send fire on the altar. People
aren't mutilating so much their flesh today in order to appear
righteous before men. But they're making sacrifices
of the flesh. This is human nature, making
sacrifices of the flesh in order to appear more holy before men. They say, well, just don't get
married and stay celibate your whole life. And then, you know,
you wear funny outfits. Everybody knows you stayed celibate
your whole life and you're more holy before men. Boy, a drop
of alcohol has never touched my lips. I'm more holy than somebody
else, right? Or, I've never smoked, I've never
used tobacco, or I've never done this, or I've never done that.
It makes me, I've denied the flesh, and it makes me more holy.
More holy looking to people, not in the heart. In circumcision,
just like all the Old Testament types, and pictures, and shadows,
and sacrifices, and ceremonies, they serve their day, but they're
fulfilled in Christ. They're done now because Christ
fulfilled them all. And that's what Paul says in
verse three. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Believers are the true circumcision. Now, these dogs, these evil workers
that Paul's talking about, they have an outward form of religion. They may even have the outward
sign. You know, and today it's not circumcision, but it might
be a cross around their neck or, you know, whatever it is.
They have the outward sign of religion. They have a form, but
it's just a shadow. All they have is a shadow. The
believer has Christ, the fulfillment. You have the substance. It's
Christ. They just have a shadow. I'd
a whole lot rather have the substance than the shadow, wouldn't you?
Where are the circumcisions? We have that fulfillment. And
the picture of circumcision is fulfilled in the new birth. I'll
show you that if you want to look at it. Romans chapter 2. Here's where this picture is
fulfilled in the believer's life. In Romans 2 verse 28. 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, a spiritual
Israelite, which is one inwardly. And circumcision, true spiritual
circumcision, is that of the heart and the spirit, and not
in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. True circumcision is being pricked
in the heart. It's having that old, dead, hard
heart laid open by God's Word and having it replaced with a
new heart. That's spiritual circumcision. It's drawing near to God in the
heart. Not in fleshly activities, but
in the heart. And where your heart is, your
body will follow. But it's drawing near to God
in the heart. And Paul gives three evidences
that we've been circumcised in the heart. First, we worship
God in the spirit. Not in fleshly motions, not in
the big outward show of religion and rituals and religious ceremonies,
but in the spirit. Not having anything to do, in
any way connected with the activities of this flesh. Not having an
atmosphere of smokes and mirrors and candles and everything. that
appeals to the flesh, that might look real religious to the flesh,
it's in the Spirit. It's in the Word. Look over in
John chapter 4. This is what our Lord told that
Samaritan woman He met at the well. We worship God in the Spirit. In John 4 verse 24, God is Spirit,
and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit. and in
truth, that we worship God in the Spirit. Second, we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. That's where we started the lesson.
Rejoice in Christ. Rejoice in who He is. Rejoice
in everything He's done for us. Rejoice in what He's done in
us. Rejoice in His mercy. Rejoice in His love, that unspeakable
love. Rejoice in the salvation of our
souls that He's provided. It's not rejoicing in anything
we've done. or anything we haven't done. Whatever it is we haven't
done, the only reason we haven't done it outwardly is by God's
grace. I guarantee you we've thought
it. We've got no reason to rejoice in what we haven't done or what
we have done. Whatever we have done, it's God
that worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure,
as we looked at last week. It's rejoicing in Christ. Tell
me again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just hold Him up. and we feast
on Him, rejoice in Him. And third, having no confidence
in this flesh. Not in my flesh or anybody else's. Not in my works or the works
of anybody else. Now, I'm telling you, you put
your confidence in somebody else, and you're going to get disappointed.
Have no confidence in this flesh. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's where our hope is. And
Paul goes on here in verse 4, he says now, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more, I can top
him. Our Lord said in Matthew 5 verse
20, He said, I say unto you, that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. That's
what Paul is saying here. He's going to use himself as
an example. If anybody else thought they
could boast in their outward obedience to the law, Paul said,
I could boast more. Whatever it is they say they've
got confidence in, I can top it. And physically speaking,
that's true. He could have. Now let me ask
you, where did that get Saul of Tarsus? Didn't get him anywhere,
did it? And that's what he says in verse
5. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of
the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the
law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. Saul of Tarsus was the cream
of the crop. I'm telling you, he was somebody. He was circumcised eight days
after he was born. Now, the law provided a variety
of days that a baby boy could be circumcised. But if you're
circumcised the eighth day, boy, you're just better than everybody
else. That was the premier day. That was the most authentic.
Saul was circumcised the eighth day. He came from the tribe of
Benjamin. You know, a lot of the Israelites
didn't even know what tribe they were from anymore. Saul did.
He is from the beloved tribe, the tribe of Benjamin, that beloved
son of Jacob and Rachel. And Benjamin had always kept
the true worship of God, even when all the other ten tribes
revolted and worshiped idols, not Benjamin. And that's where
Paul says, he's in my pedigree, not from a bunch of rabble-rousers
now, from the true worship of God. Saul had a Hebrew mother
and a Hebrew father. There were no half-breeds in
his line, in his genealogy. He wasn't one either. He was
a pure-blooded Hebrew. Saul was a Pharisee, the son
of a Pharisee, maybe the grandson of a Pharisee. The Pharisees
were the most strict, most dedicated sect of the Jewish religion and
the most respected. Everybody in the Jewish religion
highly respected the Pharisees. And Paul was just, I mean, he
was even more strict than other Pharisees. I mean, he was just
outwardly looked like he was perfect. He was so dedicated. He'd persecute anybody that didn't
subscribe to his religious interpretations. They didn't do it right enough
for him or they turned their back on his way of thinking. He'd persecute them. And all
that just goes to show Saul was ignorant of the law. He says,
concerning the righteousness which is in the law outwardly,
I was blameless. Nobody could have pointed to
anything that I've done wrong. And all that shows was he had
no idea of the spirituality of the law. He had zeal, but there's
no knowledge. Look over Romans 10. This is
what Paul talked about his Jewish brethren. And he knew what they
were doing, the way they felt, the way they thought, because
he used to be just like them. He was their leader. In Romans
10, verse 1, he says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God.
I look over in chapter 7, back just a couple of pages. In verse 9, see, Paul knew the
way they worked because this is the way he was. In Romans
7, verse 9, he says, For I was alive without the law once. I thought I was alive once. But when the commandment came,
when there was an understanding of the commandment, sin revived
and I died. I realized I was dead. And the
commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and
by it slew me." See, that's what happened when he gained an understanding
of the spirituality of the law. He realized, I was dead. That
outward obedience is not what God's looking at. He looks on
the heart. And you know, that's not anybody's problem here this
morning. Not one person here this morning
Has any notion of keeping the law as a way to earn your righteousness
before God? Our little children know better
than that. They're being taught better.
Up here they do. They know better than that. And
let me ask you this. How about your pedigree in the
gospel? Oh, your parents were believers. Your grandparents
were believers. Maybe you're the son of a preacher.
grandson of a preacher. Other people have been raised
in false religion, but not me. I've always been taught the Scriptures.
From the time I was just knee-high, I've been taught the Scriptures.
Every week I knew my memory verse. I learned all my books of the
Bible just at a real young age. I've always been a Calvinist.
Solid, five-point Calvinist. From the time I was old enough,
really, to go out and have conversations with people, I could argue doctrine
with anybody. Because I knew it up here. Paul
would say, I grew up with the defeat of Gamaliel. Some of us
could say, I grew up with the defeat of Henry Mahan. See similarities? Don't trade
being a Calvin or a Pharisee for being a Calvinist. Don't
do it. And like the Apostle Paul. I
know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking about.
Don't trade being a Pharisee for a Calvinist. We preach Christ. We believe Christ. We trust in
Christ. We don't preach a doctrine. We
don't trust in doctrine. It's Christ who saves. Doctrine
never saved anybody. Hell would be full of Pharisees
and Calvinists. It's Christ who saves. It's Christ
we preach, it's Christ we cling to, it's Christ we love. Those
doctrines are pretty near to my heart because they teach me
of Christ. But it's Christ who is my life
and he's yours, too. He is. Now, verse seven, back
in our text, Paul says, But what things were gained to me, those
I count have lost for Christ. All Saul's pedigree and religious
activity, that used to mean more to him than life itself. Those
things that he thought brought him such profit that it would
give him eternal life. Suddenly, he saw them as loss. Now, when did everything about
you, everything about Saul, when did those things become a loss
to you? When Christ became everything.
That's when. If we see Christ as He is, we'll
see ourselves as we are. That's when everything that we've
done, all our religious activity, will become loss, when Christ
becomes everything. So, verse 8, Paul says, Yea,
doubtless, and I count all things, but loss, for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb, that I may
win Christ." Now, Paul repeats this, I count all things but
loss. He really wants to drive this
point home. He considered all his religious
doings as loss, as dumb, compared to knowing Christ. He's priceless.
All those religious activities, all his attempts at righteousness,
he counted as manure. Just something to turn away from
and disgust, to scrape up and throw away. We're trying to,
at our house, trying to house break a new puppy. And you know
how that goes. And when he does his business
in the house, I mean within seconds of somebody finding it, it gets
scooped up, cleaned up, chemicals get sprayed everywhere, and out
the door it goes. That's not going to be where
we live. It's disgusting. That's the way
we should be. Our attitude should be towards
our religious activities. It's something to be gotten rid
of as fast as possible. And not only do these religious
activities not give you any profit, not only are they on the lost
side of the column, they'll bring you to spiritual poverty and
give you eternal loss if you continue trusting in them. And
don't trust in Christ. Paul said, I count them all but
lost. For Christ's sake, he says, I've lost everything. And he
did. Paul did lose his former friends. He lost his freedom. He's writing
this letter in jail. He lost a lot of the respect
that he used to have in the Jewish community. Eventually, he'll
lose his life for it. But that's really not what he's
talking about here. Although all those things are nothing
compared to knowing Christ. because he gained a whole lot
more than he lost. I'll tell you what he's talking
about primarily. I've lost all my religious activities
and gained Christ. I lost that horrible bondage
to the law and gained freedom in Christ. I lost those filthy
rags of my own righteousness and gained being clothed in Christ's
perfect righteousness. I lost a false sense of peace
thinking what I was doing was good enough. And I gained true
peace with God through the blood of the cross of Christ. I lost
glory for religious men. That's true. But I gained eternal
glory with Christ. And he says, I count these things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
My Lord, that term, my Lord, is a term of endearment. Like
Solomon talked about my beloved. That's a term of endearment.
And what a trade. Losing my whatever. You fill in the blank. My righteousness.
My thoughts. My ways. My glory. My doings
of the flesh. Trading those things. Just fill
in the blank. Whatever it is. For my Lord. My Lord. Now, I don't even want those
other things. I don't want anything. That's
why I throw them away. Consider them as dung. I don't
want those things. I don't want them to be mine
anymore. I want my Lord. And those things,
my sin, my self, that ugliness, are not mine anymore because
my Lord made my sins His sins and put them away through the
sacrifice of Himself so that I can call Him my Lord. That's
a term of endearment. I like that, my Lord. He says
in verse 9, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. I want to win Christ. He is all I want. I don't want
my own righteousness. I never want to be judged in
my own righteousness. I want that righteousness that's
imputed to me through faith in Christ. I want His righteousness
to be clothed inside and out with His righteousness. What
Brother Scott said, not pasted on righteousness, but imputed
inside and out. And I so want to be found in
Him. To be found in Christ by God's
grace. To be chosen in Christ. to be
put in Him, to be created in Christ Jesus, to be found in
Him like the manslayer in the Old Testament was found in the
city of refuge. When he was in the city of refuge,
his life was saved. He fled there for safety. That's
where I want to be found, in Christ. And verse 10, that I
may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
Now, Paul already knew Christ. You know that. But he wanted
to know Him better. And every one of us here understands
that. I know Him. But I have such a
desire to know Him better. That's why it's safe for me to
hear these same things over and over and over again. So I'll
know Him better. I want to grow in grace and in knowledge of
Him. I want to know Him better. I
want to become more intimately acquainted with Christ, to be
closer to Him, to have closer communion with Him. And Paul
wanted what every believer wants, to know the power of the resurrection
of Christ. And partly, he is talking about
what we look forward to in the last day, having these bodies
raised in perfection, in a perfect body, just like the body of our
Lord. Now, that's power. That's a power I want to know
something about someday. But I'll tell you mostly what
he's talking about here is knowing that power in this life, in a
spiritual resurrection. When Christ arose, our justification
was complete. Paul said in Romans 4, verse
25, he is raised again for our justification. Now look over
1 Peter chapter 1. Our regeneration is because of
Christ's resurrection too. Now, I want to know this power.
1 Peter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively, living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now, I want to know that power
better. I want to experience more of
that power that causes me to walk in newness of life. Walk
in Christ. And I want to be made conformable
to His death. When Christ died, we died in
Him. He's our representative, our
substitute. When He died, we died in Him. And I want to be
crucified in this life now. I want to be crucified to this
world. I want to be crucified to myself. I want to be crucified
to sin. I want to be made conformable
to His death. And when our Lord died, they put Him in the tomb. He was dead. And I want to be
like that. I want to be dead to this world.
I want to be dead to sin. I want to be dead to the misery
that sin causes and to be in Christ where there's real life
and joy so that I can rejoice in the Lord. And when He was
raised, we were raised in Him. And I want to experience more.
I want to know more. That spiritual resurrection,
that new birth that makes me alive in Christ, gives me life
in Him so that I can do in spirit what Paul began the chapter with. Rejoice in the Lord. Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. All right. Well, I hope that's
been a blessing.