Today to Philippians chapter
3. Philippians chapter 3 and we
are looking at the first three verses in this chapter. 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. 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. I want to call our attention
this morning to two subjects in these verses. First, I want
to remind us that God's people, God's people we always have cause
to rejoice. And second, I want to remind
us that repetition should never be grievous because it is necessary. So first, God's people always
have cause to rejoice. The Apostle Paul says, my brethren,
he's speaking to God's people, those who have been saved by
the grace of God, who trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now in the verses,
I want you to notice back in the previous chapter, the verses
that we looked at last time, Paul mentioned three things in
which they would surely rejoice when they read what he had written
up to this point. If you notice in verse 19, Paul
trusted that he would send Timothy to them shortly. He said, but
I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you. Now that would cause them to
rejoice. when they read that Timothy,
this faithful servant of God that they knew, that Paul would
send him to them shortly and they would be privileged once
again to sit under the ministry of this man of God, Timothy. And then a second thing, if you
notice in verse 24, Paul said, but I trust in the Lord that
I also myself shall come shortly. Now you know this caused them
to rejoice when the Apostle Paul wrote to them and told them that
he had hope that he himself would once again be among them. This
is the man who had brought the gospel to them. This is the man
that God had used in their lives. You know those of us here today
who know Christ as our Lord and Savior We have many instructors,
but we only have one Father in Christ. There was a man, there
was a man that God used in your life and in my life to preach
the gospel, to declare the truth about Christ unto us. And that
person will always have a special place in our heart. And Paul
was that man for these believers in Philippi. And so surely they
would rejoice when he told them, plus the fact that he told them
he'd be released, he was a prisoner. That would cause them to rejoice.
That I trust shortly to come to you. And then a third thing,
if you notice in verse 28, Epaphroditus, their minister,
who they had sent to take an offering to Paul, the scripture
says, I sent him therefore the more carefully that when you
see him again, when Epaphroditus came into Philippi and these
believers saw this minister of theirs once again in this world,
having heard that he had been sick nigh unto death, and God
had healed him, Paul told them, rejoice, you may rejoice. And surely, surely they did. We are given many things in this
life, you and I. I like to refer to them as creature
comforts. We are creatures and there are
many comforts, many blessings that God gives to us in this
world. And he gives them to us to enjoy. Later to Timothy, the Apostle
Paul wrote, charge them that are rich in this world. And every
one of us here today, we are rich in this world. I know we
have a tendency to compare ourselves with these multi-millionaires
and multi-billionaires, but compare yourself with 75% of the world's
population. Rich. Rich. And Paul told Timothy, charge
them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded,
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth
us richly all things to enjoy. Paul calls riches, the riches
of this world, uncertain, uncertain riches. One of Solomon's proverbs
asks this question about riches. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon
that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves
wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." Solomon asked
that, would you set your sights, your eyes on riches, on silver,
on gold? Riches, he said, make themselves
wings and they fly away. Paul told Timothy, charge them
that are rich in this world, not to trust in uncertain riches,
but in the living God, now listen, who giveth us, us, both rich
and poor, who giveth us all things to enjoy. Riches are uncertain, but so
are the many other things that God gives us to enjoy. Many of the things that he gives
us make themselves wings and they fly away. They change. They decay. Everything in this
world. But Paul points believers to
one object that never changes. We always, every child of God,
we always have cause to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, as the letter of
Hebrews tells us, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will never change. Everything
else that we may rejoice in, we may rejoice in our health.
Thank God if God gives you good health, but you may lose that. You know, Job, we have an example
in the Word of God of a man who lost everything in this world.
He lost his riches, he lost his family, he lost his health, and
yet he was still able to rejoice in Christ because he said, I
know, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Rejoice in the Lord,
the apostle tells us. My brethren, rejoice in the Lord. I want to give us some things
that we may rejoice in, in Christ. First of all, we may rejoice
in His person. His person. Who is the Lord Jesus
Christ? He's God. He's God manifest in
the flesh. If you turn over just a page
to Colossians, Colossians chapter 1, Beginning with verse 12, rejoice
in the Lord, rejoice in His person. Colossians 1 and verse 12, giving
thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. in whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Now notice, who is
the image of the invisible God? Who is Christ? We rejoice in
His person, that He is God. God-man. God-man. We sang that hymn just a few
minutes ago, and we We rejoice that Christ Jesus, the God-man,
was born into this world. Christ the King, who is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him, now notice, for by
Him were all things created, which are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible. All things were created by Him.
The Bible begins with these words, In the beginning, God. Do you
realize there was a time when nothing existed but God? This universe is His creation
and all the other universes that there may be. He has always existed. The Apostle Paul said, we live,
we move, we have our being in Him, but God does not have His
being solely in this universe. Before anything was created,
in the beginning, God. That's who we're talking about
here. When we read about the eternal Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ who was made flesh, the image The image. I mean, when you see Christ,
you see God. He told His disciples, have I
been so long time with you and you have not seen me? He that
has seen me has seen the Father. He is the express image of the
Father. And He's manifested to us as
a man, the God-man. visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers,
all things were created by Him and for Him. He is the Creator
of all things, and all things not only were created by Him,
but for Him, for His glory, for His praise, for His honor. And
He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. He holds this universe together. It amazes me sometimes when I
listen on the news what some scientist has come up with. And
they're baffled, aren't they? They're baffled at the universe,
and rightly they should be. Because it is a creation of God,
the Omnipotent, All-Wise, all-knowing, immutable God. And that God,
the Eternal Son, came into this world as a man. Rejoice in His
person. He told his disciple Thomas eight
days after his resurrection. You remember, Thomas was not
with the eleven on the day of our Lord's resurrection, so he
missed that first opportunity to see the resurrected Christ. God's people sometimes miss by
not being with the people of God. I mean, you miss. You miss. I know it's easy to
miss. You've got other things to do. But my friends, who knows
what you may be missing. Thomas missed that first vision,
first sight of Christ. But on the next Sunday, the Lord
came among them. Remember Thomas had said, if
I don't see the marks in his fingers, and I don't put my hand
in his side, I'm not going to believe. And the Lord appeared,
and he said, Thomas, reach hither thy finger, thy hand. Now we're
not told that Thomas did that. I don't believe he did. I believe
he saw the marks. I believe he saw the side that
had been pierced. And I believe he fell on his
face, and he said, my Lord and my God. And the Lord Jesus Christ
said this to him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed. I've never seen him, not with
these eyes of the flesh, and neither have you. And yet, he
said, we are blessed, having not seen, yet we believe. Rejoice in his person. Rejoice in the Lord. Number two,
rejoice, we may always rejoice in his names. And you know he has so many names
or titles, I couldn't list many of them. But consider this, Rejoice
in this name, thou shalt call his name Immanuel. What does that mean? Being interpreted,
God with us. God with us. God came into His
creation. God came into this world. God with us. Rejoice in that
name. What about His name? And this
is just a cluster of names which is given unto us by the prophet
Isaiah. Wonderful. We call different
things wonderful, but here is one who is truly wonderful. When that father of Samson asked
that angel of the Lord, which was a manifestation of Christ,
what's your name? Tell us your name. Remember what
he said? My name is secret. Secret. Wonderful. Wonderful. Not only wonderful, but counselor. Counselor. He's our counselor. If any man sin, we have a counselor,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. His name is the mighty God. His
name is the everlasting Father. You say, yes, but He's the eternal
Son. I know that. He is the eternal
Son of God, but He is also named the everlasting Father because
He has a people. He has a seed that was given
unto Him by God the Father. He's the everlasting Father. And He is the Prince of Peace. The Prince, the King of Peace. I'm so thankful, and I know you
are as well today if you know Christ as your Lord and Savior,
that you have peace with God. We came into this world enmity. enmity, haters, enemies of God. But He has made peace for us,
for you, for me, with God Almighty by the blood of His cross, the
Prince of Peace. His name is Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end and all things in between. He's Alpha. Rejoice in the Lord, in His name. And His name is the bright and
morning star, the sun of righteousness that
arose with healing in His wings. And His name is Redeemer. I sing of my Redeemer. Redeemer. He said unto His people,
Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, thou art mine. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. So rejoice in the Lord, in his
person, in his names, in his offices, as a mediator. And remember, he's the only mediator. What does that mean? He mediates
from God to man. Man cannot just, a creature like
you and I, we cannot just fly into the presence of Almighty
God. We need one between us and God
Almighty. He's that one. He mediates between
God and man and between us and God. There's one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There is no other. Someone says, well, I want to
go to God through my church, or I want to go to God through
my priest, I want to go to God through whatever. There's only
one way to God, and that's through Him. And as Mediator, He has
these three offices. He was anointed. As these men
in the Old Testament, every one of them was anointed to the office
with oil, but he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. To be our
prophet, he teaches us about God. To be our priest, he redeemed
us unto God. And to be our king, he conquers
us. We were like a wild asses cult. That's what the scripture says
about all of us, by nature. We were like a wild asses colt. Nobody would tell us what to
do. We were stubborn. We were rebellious. And if God had left us alone,
that's the way we would have ended our life and be cast into
hell. The king, he conquered us. by His Spirit and His Word, and
He overcame that rebellion, that hatred, that enmity, and made
us willing in the day of His power. He conquered us, and He
set up His throne in our heart. He reigns, and He rules in the
hearts of His people. We rejoice in His offices And
we rejoice in His work as our surety, as our surety. He agreed to be our sponsor in
old eternity when that covenant was made, when that covenant
was struck. He agreed to be our sponsor,
to be our surety. Do you know what the old writers
used to use, the word they used to use for a sponsor, for a surety? an undertaker, an undertaker. Who needs an undertaker? The
body of a dead person. And we were all spiritually dead. And he agreed to be our undertaker,
our sponsor, our surety, and to pay that debt of sin that
we owe to God's justice and could never pay. You work your fingers
to the bones. You're just working and trying
to do your best to please God and satisfy God, and you hope
someday when you stand before God that He's going to take all
your good works and put them on this side of the scale, and
He's going to take all your bad works and put them over here,
and you're sure hoping your good works outweigh your bad. No,
no, that's not it at all, my friends. He agreed to come into
this world as a representative, as a surety of those people that
God gave to him as his sheep, and to pay not most of the debt,
all of the debt. And it's paid. When he said it's
finished, the debt is paid. And he had rendered obedience
to God's holy law. we might be declared just before
Him. Those of us who know God in Christ
always have cause to rejoice. The psalmist, and you're familiar
with this psalm, he said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget
not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who
crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth
thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagle. So first of all, Paul says, we
always have cause to rejoice, God's people. Now second, I want
you to notice in the title of the this subject, this division,
repetition, repetition. It is not grievous. It should
not be grievous because Paul says it's safe. Look at the word,
look at the word rather, Philippians 3 verse 1. Finally my brethren
rejoice in the Lord, period. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe, or it
is necessary. God is truth. He said, I am the
way, the truth, and therefore truth never changes. He is the
truth. He is immutable. Truth never
changes. And the truth will never grow
irrelevant. I hear a man sometimes reading
the scripture on the radio, and he does a real good job, but
he uses that word relevant quite often. And he says, this passage
is relevant for us today. God's word is the truth, and
it's always relevant. It'll never be irrelevant. It's relevant. It's immutable. And that verse I just read in
the Psalms that said, "...who satisfy thy mouth with good things,
so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle." The psalmist
is not saying that our physical strength is renewed. We were
talking about this earlier as we grow older. Our bodies, we
lose the strength and things we could do when we were younger,
that's just part of growing older. But the psalmist said, thy youth
is renewed like the eagles. He's not talking about our physical
strength, he's talking about the days of our youth when we
were first brought to know Christ as our Lord and Savior. And everything
was new and fresh and we experience that as we go through life. Sometimes
the truth, it never grows old, but sometimes it grows stale
to us. And our youth is renewed like
the eagle. And those first movings of God's
spirit that he's revealed unto us, God's love, they're refreshed
in us. The truth repeated should never
be grievous for the preacher. I speak to myself as a preacher
of the gospel. The truth should never be grievous
for me to preach. I fear that some men who call
themselves preachers feel like they've got to come up with something
new, something different, something that no one's ever heard before.
There's nothing new under the sun. Tell me the old, old story
of Jesus and His love. And those who hear the truth
repeated, it should never be grievous because it's necessary. We assume that what Paul now
writes he had declared to them when he was among them, because
he says here, to write the same things to you, the same things
that I preached when I was with you. Now to write these same
things, it's not grievous to me, and it should not be grievous
to you, because it's safe, it's necessary. Someone said that
our minds are like a sieve that things just slip through, you
know. And we hear something and we
think we've got it, but we forget. We so soon forget. And so we
continually need to be reminded of these things. Now there are
two things that Paul does that he writes to them. First of all,
he warned them. Beware of dogs, evil workers,
and the concision. He uses three terms to describe
the same people. Who are these people that he
calls dogs, evil workers, and the concision? Well, they are
false teachers. False teachers who would come
among them and subvert the gospel, the truth. They would subvert
the gospel of Christ by adding to it. A false teacher, a false
teacher, one of these dogs, one of these evil workers, they will
never, now listen to me, they will never out and out deny Christ. But what they will do, they will
add to his finished work. They would make God's salvation
depend upon the will and the work of men. Yes, He's our Savior,
but we too, we must, at our part, we must contribute our might
in this work. And really, they make salvation
a joint work between God and men. No, salvation is of the
Lord. These dogs These evil workers,
the concision, they're false, false teachers. The Lord Jesus
gave the same warning in His Sermon on the Mount when He said,
Beware false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. In the Old Testament, God referred
to them as watchmen. You know, a city had a wall around
it. And there were watchmen placed on the wall, and their responsibility
was to warn when they saw an enemy, an army approaching, to
sound a warning. But God said these false watchmen
are prophets, they're blind, they're ignorant, they're all
dumb dogs that cannot bark. Beware, the apostle says, beware. And one writer said he refers
to them as dogs because as dogs return to their vomit. And Peter
speaks about that. Dogs return to their vomit. So
these false teachers had a hankering to return to Judaism, to the
ceremonies of the law and all that went before. All of that
had been terminated by Christ's coming. and fulfilling all of
those shadows. But they wanted to go back. They
attempted to bring believers into the bondage of the law of
Moses. And he calls them evil workers
because they handled the Word of God deceitfully. They removed
the offense of the cross. Listen, there's places you could
go today, many places in Houston, and hear what that man says is
the gospel, and it would not offend a grasshopper. God loves
everybody, Christ died for everybody, and the Holy Spirit's trying
to save everybody. What's offensive about that?
You tell me. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of
Christ is offensive to a lost man. It just is. And these would-be teachers figured
out a way to remove the offense of the cross. I mean, butter
wouldn't melt in their mouths. They're so smooth, prophesy unto
us smooth things. They're evil workers. They are
the concision because they desired by circumcision to bring men
under the yoke of the law. But notice, He instructed them,
those who trust in Christ are the true circumcision, the people
of God. Now what does He mean by that? Well, in Colossians chapter 2
and verse 11, he speaks about a circumcision made without hands. A circumcision made without hands. What is that? That's God the
Holy Spirit removing that hard heart and giving a heart of flesh. That's the circumcision he's
talking about. A new heart. to believe and to
trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We are sinners and
have a sinful nature and this means that for us to save or
help save ourselves is impossible. We need a Savior who truly saves. There's only one, Jesus Christ
the righteous. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Are you a sinner? He came to
save sinners. Oh, I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad. I may have
done a few things that I shouldn't have done in my life, but I don't
know if I'd call myself a sinner. Well, He came to save sinners. You put yourself out of the reach
of a Savior when you say things like that. We, Paul says, we are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Years ago in London there was
a bricklayer, a mason, and he was working on a job and something
fell, the wall that they were building or something fell on
him and the men pulled him out from the rubble and it was obvious
the man was not going to live and a clergyman came by and he
told this man, he bent down over him and he said, you need to
make your peace with God. And he said, oh, no, sir. No,
sir. My savior did that for me long
ago. You can't make peace with God.
What would you give to God? What would you offer to God?
You have nothing. And everything you have is tainted
with sin. Christ, he's your answer. He's
the only answer. Maybe someone here this morning
Never trusted in Christ. You say, well, what do I need
to do? Do I need to get up and come down to the front? Do I
need? No, no. Just look to Christ. That's what
he said. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Look to Christ. Turn to Christ.
Trust in Christ. Come to Christ. All of these
words are saying the same thing, aren't they? Rest your weary
soul upon Christ. That's it. Without moving a muscle,
without moving a hair, look to Christ. Trust in Him. I pray
that God will give you that grace I want us to sing a couple of
verses of this last hymn and we'll be dismissed. Hymn number
466.