Turn to Philippians chapter 3.
Paul begins this chapter by telling the church at Philippi that repetition
of good and wholesome doctrine is a good thing. Listen to what he says here.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you It
is safe. Now, there's a lot of folks who
make accusations that we just rehearse the old doctrines. That's
what they say. They just meet over there and
go over and over and over. They rehearse the old doctrine.
But Paul says here for me to say the same things to you. This
repetition is what he's talking about. He said, for me, it's
not grievous. It's grievous to an unbeliever
because he didn't want to hear it the first time, let alone
the second or third or fourth or fifth. The more he hears it,
the more grievous it is to him. He don't want to hear these things.
But Paul said, for me, it's not grievous. Try to imagine a treasure,
a treasure so great that you can't comprehend it all. Piles
of it around you, silver and gold and precious gems, as Solomon's
kingdom was when the queen came to see it. She looked at it and
she said, there's no breath left in me. The half has not been
told. Try to imagine a treasure so
big and so huge and so awesome that you can't even comprehend
it. Do you think it would be grievous for you to show that
to somebody? Let me show you this. Open that
door. Our Lord said, Every scribe which
is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man
that is a householder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things
new and old. In Matthew chapter 12, our Lord
said, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth
forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure
bringeth forth evil things. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 verse 7, speaking of the glorious gospel of Christ, Paul said,
We have this treasure in earthen vessels. The gospel revelation is a treasure. In Colossians, Paul said, in
Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
he said, to write the same things to you, to me, is not grievous. But then he says, for you it's
safe. It's safe. The word safe here means free
from danger of any kind, free from hurt, injury. and damage. I remember when I was first beginning
to see some things in the Word of God that I went and I asked
the elders of our church, these men who, they were preachers
and deacons and held different offices in the church and were
considered by a congregation to be elders. And I went and
asked them some questions about predestination. And you thought
I, I throwed acid on somebody. Oh, don't Don't mess with that. Don't mess with that. And they
made this thing to seem like it was rat poison or something,
something dangerous, something you not had the skull and the
crossbones on. Don't mess with that. Don't mess
with that. And then I found out as I began
to see other statements in the Scripture, I wanted to know what
these things meant. I'd spent a lifetime in religion. I'd never even heard of these
things. And yet here they were, just as plain as the nose on
your face. Right here, just stated over
and over and over. The sovereignty. Absolute sovereignty
of God. Irresistible sovereignty. Unquestionable
sovereignty. Don't go there. Don't go there.
But Paul said, for me to preach these things to you is not grievous
for me. This is a treasure to me, and
it's not grievous for me to show it to you. And he said, it's
safe for you. It's safe. Free from hurt and
injury or damage. Nothing could be safer for you
than to hear the gospel of God's redeeming grace in Christ Jesus.
What could be safer than that? Paul wrote to the Corinthian
church and he said, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because it was safe. It was safe. What could be more
safe to you than to hear about the eternal love of God in Christ
Jesus? Loved us with an everlasting
love. Loved us with a distinguishing
love. Loved us and sent His Son as
the propitiation for our sins. Loved us and gave Himself for
us. Loved us even while we were yet
enemies and sinners against God. What could be more safe than
for you to hear the love of God? And what could be more safe for
you to hear than God's election of His people in Christ Jesus?
If He had not chosen us, we would never have chosen Him. That is
what our Lord told His disciples. You have not chosen Me, I chose
you. I chose you. If God had not chosen
us and made provision for us, we would have never chosen Him,
and it is impossible for us to make provision for ourselves.
What could be more safe for you to hear about than the sin-atoning
blood of Christ? God set him forth to be a propitiation,
the Scripture said, through faith in His blood. In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Not
by the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Not redeemed with corruptible
things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ. Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. What could be more safe for you
than to hear of this sin-atoning blood of Christ? What could be
more safe for you to hear than the righteousness of Christ?
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin, but now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Oh, even the righteousness of
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. What could be more safe for you
to hear than the resurrection of Christ? He's not here. That's what the angel said standing
before the empty tomb. He's not here. Whom seek ye? He's not here. He's risen. He's
risen. Delivered for our transgressions
and raised for our justification. And Paul said, if He be not risen,
then our preaching is in vain. We're wasting our time. We've
got nothing to say. Everything we had to save based
on that resurrection of Christ. If He be not raised, then our
preaching is vain. If Christ be not risen, your
faith is in vain. It don't matter what you believe.
If He's still in the tomb, it's all for nothing. If Christ be
not risen, then His work is in vain. All of His work was for
naught. If Christ be not risen, all those
who sleep in Christ, all those that we buried with hope in Christ,
they are all perished forever. And if Christ be not risen, then
all of our hopes are lost with Him. And we are of all men in
this world most miserable. When God raised up Christ from
the dead, He raised up His people with Him. He not only raised
them up with Him, but they were made to sit together with Him
in heavenly places in Christ. What could be more safe for you
to hear than the Lord Jesus Christ sitting upon the throne of absolute
sovereignty, absolute sovereign lordship, ruling and arranging
all things for the complete salvation of your soul? What could be safer
for you to hear than that? Oh, it's not grievous, Paul said,
for me to tell you of these things. And it's safe for you. It's safe
for you. But religion puts a question
mark on God's gospel. They say these things are to
be kept silent. And so immediately after saying
these things, look at verse 2 in Colossians chapter 3. Where does
he go after stating this? stating that he does repeat things,
but it's not grievous for him to do it. And it's so safe for
you to hear it. So safe for you to hear it. And
then immediately, now listen, beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision. My friend,
every man who claims to be a servant of Christ is not of God. Try
the spirits. Isn't that what he says? The
unconverted Pharisees were not servants of God, though they
claimed to be and believed themselves to be, and were renowned of men
to be. Even our disciples tried to defend
them before the Lord. Don't you know you offended these
Pharisees? There's no other reason to say
that except they believed these men to be servants of the true
and living God. And then our Lord told them this,
they'd be blind leaders of the blind. And He told them to their
face, you're the servants of the devil. Remember what He said? You're children of the devil.
And here Paul calls them dogs. Calls them dogs because they
run in packs to advantage themselves. Calls them dogs because they're
forever nipping and biting at the heels of God's servants.
And He calls them dogs because they bark at things they don't
understand and don't know what it is. And something else the Scripture
tells us about these dogs in Revelation 22, 15, without our
dogs. They're without. That's where
the dogs are. Outside the kingdom of God are
dogs. Vicious, hungry, ravening dogs. And these dogs are not alone.
They're also out there with them. Here's their company. Sorcerers,
whoremongers, murderers, and idolaters, and everyone that
loveth and maketh a lie. These are all without. They're
without. And when men and women leave
the company of the church, and leave the fellowship of God's
saints, and leave the preaching of the gospel, and leave the
worship of God, they are without. They're without. Listen to what
John says. They went out from us. Where'd
they go? Out. They went out from us. Maybe not exactly in the same
sense as what he states in Revelation, being outside the kingdom of
God, but they went out. And out there is where the sorcerers
are. Out there is where the murderers and idolaters are. and adulterers
and all of these things, and people that make a lie and love
lies, that's where they are, without. Pastors are given to watch for
your souls. That's what the Scripture said,
isn't it? You obey them that have the rule
over you, for they watch for your souls. Now if God has appointed
His pastors to watch for your souls and you leave the pastor,
who is watching for yours? If preachers are sent for the
perfecting of the saints and the work of the ministry, who
is doing that work for you? If evangelists and pastor-teachers
are sent to edify God's church, who is teaching you? Without or dogs. You see what
Paul is saying? Dogs, beware of dogs, he said,
and beware of evil workers. Everyone who claims to be a servant
of God is not necessarily so. In 2 Corinthians 11, 13, he tells
us about these men. He said, such are false apostles.
Now listen, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ, and no marvel. For Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light, therefore it's no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works. Our Lord warned
of these men, telling us that they would appeal to him at judgment,
saying, We preached in your name. We preached in your name. We
did many wonderful works in Your name. And the Lord said unto
them, Depart from Me, listen, ye workers of iniquity." I never
knew you. What kind of workers? Workers
of iniquity. How did they appear? As angels
of light, ministers of righteousness. And then thirdly, He said, Beware
of the concision. This is a word Paul uses to express
his contempt, his utter contempt for the Judaizers who insisted
upon the Gentile believers being circumcised. They were willing
to forfeit about everything else in the law except circumcision.
We just want to carry this one thing. Just to be sure, we're
going to add this one thing. And they rejected Paul's teaching
about the true circumcision. And this word, concision, means
mutilators. That's what it means. Mutilators.
Not just because of the cutting of the flesh, but because they
mutilated men's souls. He took this false teaching of
circumcision and applied it spiritually as men mutilating men's souls. And they mutilated the gospel
of God's sovereign grace. And then he tells them in Galatians
5, verse 2, if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Nothing. And then again, he said,
I do not frustrate the grace of God if righteousness come
by the law, a little or a lot. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain. to disadvantage yourself and
your believing brothers, to forsake the assembling of yourselves
together, to purposely try to live by faith in this present
evil world by yourself is a dangerous business. It's a dangerous business because
you're surrounded with dogs and evil workers. Well, I know the
truth. They don't have any effect on
me. If they didn't, you'd be here. You think about that. Isn't that so? You're surrounded with these
dogs and these evil workers and these mutilators of men's souls. Verse 3, for we are the circumcision. Who is? Believers. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit. Now I want you to notice here
that this word Spirit is not capitalized. It's not capitalized. This is not talking about the
Holy Spirit in the first context of its meaning. Yes, in order
to have spiritual understanding, you must have the person and
presence of the Holy Spirit. He alone reveals. He alone reveals
these things. But here it's not talking about
the Holy Spirit. The best place to see the difference
is over here in 1 Corinthians 2. Read that and study that this
afternoon, 1 Corinthians 2 and verses 10 through 16. In these
verses, we're told that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us through
the gospel the things which God has prepared for them that love
him, that we've received not the spirit of the world. That's
a small s on that spirit, too. We have received not the spirit
of the world, not by their traditional teaching or philosophy or definition. But the spirit, that is the spiritual
understanding which is of God, that we might know the thing
freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not
in man's wisdom, not in words of man's wisdom. We don't teach that way, but
with the Holy Ghost, how the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. And then he sums it all up in
verse 16 of chapter 2 by saying, we have the mind of Christ. And
we're understood of no man, yet we understand all things. How
come? Because you have the mind of
Christ. The true circumcision, worship God in a spiritual understanding
and revelation of Christ. Let me say that again. The true
circumcision worships God in spiritual understanding and revelation
of Christ. Now, music in and of itself is
not worship. It's only worship insomuch as
we sing those words that give us the understanding and tell
from the heart those things which we know by our own experience.
But music in and of itself is not worship. Waving the hands
and swaying the body in and of itself is not worship. Worship
is in the heart and it comes through the understanding. And
then secondly, we are the true circumcision which rejoice in
Christ Jesus. That's what we rejoice in. We
don't rejoice in how much we know. We don't rejoice in the
fact that we can come through the Scripture and understand.
That's not what we rejoice in. We rejoice in Him. Apart from
a knowledge of Him, this book would be a total mystery. Total
mystery. All these things are revealed
in Him. And we rejoice in a full revelation of Him. We rejoice
in the sufficiency of His sacrifice. We rejoice in the glory of His
person. This is the God-man. We rejoice in the accomplishments
and especially that of His righteousness. We rejoice in His victorious
reign and we rejoice in His gracious gospel. And then thirdly, he
said, we are the true circumcision which have no confidence in the
flesh. The man who truly knows himself
puts no trust in himself. He leans on and submits himself
to the mediatorial king of glory. Paul said he learned to take
pleasure, listen to this, in his infirmities. He had something
horribly wrong with his his face. We don't know what it is. We're
never told what it is. But it was something that he
prayed constantly for because people were put off by sight
of it. He told the people, he said,
I bear you witness, when you first met me, you would have
plucked out your own eyes and given them to me if you could. But he said, I've come to take
pleasure in infirmities. in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. How do you
derive any pleasure out of those things? He said, for when I'm
weak, then am I strong. When I'm weak, when He takes
away all the hope and glory of this flesh, when He puts all
these things aside, then we're strong spiritually. You know
why? Because then we look to Him.
And we look to Him. Our glory and my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest on me. And we know something
of the weakness and frailty of the flesh, and we have no confidence
in it. No confidence in it. Religion
has ever confidence in it. Why, there's a little bit of
good in all men. You ever heard that? Well, I
heard that the whole time I was growing up. A little bit of good
in everybody. That's not what Scripture says.
Scripture said there's none good but God. Where is this goodness? It's in the vanity of your mind.
That's where it is. There's none good but God. We have no confidence in the
flesh, no confidence in its ability to produce a righteousness acceptable
to God. Have no confidence in the flesh
to do anything without the power of God to move it, to recreate
it, to do something with it that we can't do. Got no power. You don't even have power to
believe. Did you know that? You don't
even have the power to believe. All you have to do is believe.
Yeah, but you can't. You can't. But you can. When God works in
you, you can. But that man who knows what that
means, he got no confidence in the flesh. Not in anything. Not to do anything. Not to say
anything. Not to be anything. No confidence
in the flesh. This is the true circumcision.
And that cutting off was in Christ. That's what that signified. Cut
off in Him. My sins, all is cut off in Him. And in Him, I'm righteous. In
Him, I'm godly. In Him, I'm pure. In Him, there's
nothing, not a spot, not a blemish, not a wrinkle, but pure in Him. You see what Paul's saying? He
said, for me, this is not grievous to tell you these things. And
it's safe for you. But you better beware of dogs,
and you better beware of the concision and these evil workers.
And the more you fool with them, you mark my word, the more you
fool with them, the more you fellowship with them, the more
you have to do with them, the worse off you're going to be.
That's just the way it is.