Philippians 3:1-11
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3 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Php 3:1–11.
Transcript
Welcome to God's Word for You, a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you be blessed by both hearing God's word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
Please open in your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter three. Philippians, chapter three, and we’ll be reading verses one through eleven this morning. But the sermon will be specifically focusing on verses one through three. Philippians chapter three, verses one through eleven can be found on page 1044 of your Pew Bibles. Philippians chapter three beginning at verse one. This is God's word. It deserves your attention. Listen carefully.
“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray, “Lord, we thank you so much for your word and we pray now, God, that you would incline our hearts to it. God, we pray that we would have ears to hear, that we would have minds to learn, Lord and that we would have hearts to believe. We pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.”
Have you ever been disappointed two days after Christmas, as a parent? You know what I mean. Two days after Christmas, after all that gift wrapping, after all that present buying, after all that excitement, all of a sudden, that kid doesn't care about that toy anymore. They were really excited on Christmas. They were even excited Christmas night about it and then a little bit the next day. But then it's like something happens. There's a drop in their interest. And this great gift that you had thought about, that you had purchased for, that you had worked for, that you had given that child and then they just kind of set it aside. And they forget about it. Well, often this is what happens in our own lives. God has given us the gift of salvation and of being able to worship him. And when we are first saved, isn't it true that we're really, really excited about God and about his word and about worship? And then we're like that kid who puts away that toy, and we will visit it every once awhile, but we don't have that same joy anymore about it.
Well, Christian, Paul here tells us, in no uncertain terms, rejoice. Rejoice, have joy. How do we get to come and worship and not simply have empty rituals? We come with hearts of joy. We know what that's like to come, and worship is just a ritual or routine. But it's not to be that. God's given us a great gift, and we're to have joy, because of that gift, because of His grace. So today's a good news day. Today is a gospel day. Today is a day where we just get to think about God. The next three weeks are going to be nothing about thinking about what God has given us in Jesus Christ. His gospel, His good news, the amazing gift that He's given us in our hearts I pray, over the next three weeks, are gonna be filled with joy at the gift that He's given us in Jesus Christ.
And so the first point in this rejoicing because there's good news, is that command, “Rejoice.” That’s your first point: rejoice. Look with me at verse one, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same thing to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” Paul has given the Philippians this whole letter so far about all these good things that God has given, that God has promised them. How did he start the letter to them? Grace and peace to you. He started his letter telling them, “God is giving you grace. God is giving you peace.” And then he went on and he talked about, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” That's good news. And then he told us about how we are to live as gospel citizens. But then he held up to us the gospel citizen, Jesus Christ himself, who loved you, who humbled himself for you, who died for you, who lived for you, and who raised from the dead for you. Paul is saying rejoice.
This is why he says, “Finally, after everything I've said, finally,” what should be your response? Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice! Have your hearts well up because of Jesus. And it's not a hard thing for Paul to write these things to them again, to tell them these things again. I mean, if your friend, if you had the opportunity to tell your friend that they won the lottery, would that be a hard thing to tell them more than once? No. I mean you might be worried about the things that come with the lottery, but if someone was the inheritor of a $1,000,000, I'd want to go and give that type of joy to that person all the time. It's not hard for Paul. It's not tedious for Paul. It's not hard for any minister to come to you and say “Rejoice. The gospel is in front of you. Take joy. This is good tidings. This is glad news for you. Have joy. Jesus Christ is before you.”
And it's not only that it's not just tedious, it's also safe for them. Think about how often you would tell your children or your grandchildren, “I love you.” Is that a hard thing for you? No, it's not hard. You tell your kid “I love you.” Maybe I should back up. Sometimes it is hard to tell your kid, “I love you.” But in your soul, it's not a tedious thing for you. It's not troublesome for you. It's what you want to do! It's what the pastor Paul wants to do for the Philippians. He wants to tell them, “rejoice.” Rejoice! And just like your kids need to hear you say you love them, and just like your grandchildren need to hear you say you love them. You need to hear this command to rejoice, because we forget it, don't we? We get so bogged down by the things of this world, by our sin, and just hearing the word, week in and week out, that we forget that this is good news for us, and it's safe for us. We need to hear it. We need to know it. We need to bury it in our hearts. That this is good news for us. The gospel should produce joy in our hearts, so our hearts should rejoice when God tells us, “I love you.” Our heart should well up with joy. So Christian, rejoice. Finally, Christian, rejoice.
But there's a reality here also. People can steal your joy, did you know that? People will try to steal your joy. If it were possible, they would snatch it up from you. Satan wants nothing more than to snatch that joy straight out of your soul. And so your second point is, you gotta watch out. You need to watch out. You need to look, be careful, beware, there's danger in this world. Paul says it three times here, “Beware. Beware. Beware.” This is a father looking down at his son and saying, “Look, son, you're gonna go to college, and you need to watch out for this. You need to watch out for teachers who’re gonna try to pull the wool over your eyes. Son, you're gonna go to college, and I'm not gonna be able to watch over your shoulder. You gotta make sure you're careful on the friends you make. Son, you're going to college, and you got to be careful because there's gonna be parties and they're going to be people that you shouldn't be at. There's gonna be philosophies taught that you can't buy. You gotta watch out. You gotta be careful.”
And Paul here, Pastor Paul is telling us, “beware.” There are things out there. There are people out there who will try to steal Christ from you, try to steal the joy, as if they ever could, but they're trying to. And what does he called them? He calls them dogs, evil workers, mutilation. Sometimes, if you're like me, I don't really like confrontation. If there's a fight, I just want to, like, make peace, you know, walk away, do something else. If there's tension in the air, you know, tell a joke or something, get rid of it. But sometimes you’ve got to call a spade a spade. And sometimes God just cuts to the point and says, “Here's what's going on, here is the truth, and you need to know it.” And that's what God does here. Beware of the evil doers. Beware of the dogs. Beware of the mutilators. That's what they are. That's what these people are. And these people, are what we call Judaizers. These are people who became Christians, and instead of Jesus Christ being the hope in the center of the Gospel, there are Jewish missionaries who have become Christians who are coming into the church now and saying, “Not only do you need Jesus, but now you also need to be circumcised if you're going to be saved. Not only do you need Jesus, but you also need to keep the law. Not only do you have Jesus, but you can't touch unclean things. You can't eat unclean foods. You can't touch dead bodies. You can't do this. You can't do that. And the whole weight of the law has fallen back down on the Christian’s shoulders.”
And Paul is saying here, “Watch out for dogs.” We think of dogs and we think of cute little puppies or something like that. That's not how Jews thought about dogs. Dogs are unclean. Dogs lick up blood. Dogs are scavengers. Dogs weren't allowed in the house. These are like what we think of coyotes. You don't like dogs around. When Jezebel fell out the window and died, the dogs ate Jezebel's body. Dogs are, in the Jewish mind, are gross; they're sick. They’re something you keep away from you.
They’re dogs. These people are trying to rip you apart. They’re evil workers, or, as the Old Testament would say, the Psalms are full of what the Psalmist calls, “workers of iniquity.” It's all over the Psalms. If you have a concordance, if you want this evening a good exercise for you to do, just pull out any concordance or go on the Internet and look up the phrase, “workers of iniquity,” and look at how many times it's in the Psalms. And think about this, Rabbi Paul here is saying, “These peoples are workers of iniquity. They're doers of evil, but they're trying to say that they're the true Jews. They're trying to say that they're the circumcision.” And Paul is saying, “No, no, they're not. They’re workers of evil, they’re workers of iniquity. They're not what a Christian is.” It is not Jesus, plus the law. It's not Jesus plus, somehow you need to be circumcised. It is not Jesus plus anything. It's Jesus Christ as your joy and your hope. That is the Christian joy. Beware of those workers of iniquity who will try to steal that joy from you.
They're not like Timothy, and they're not like Epaproditus, who we looked at a few weeks ago who were these workers of righteousness, who loved Paul and who loved the gospel. These are not those type of men. You've got to be careful in your own life of these type of people. Jesus, plus other stuff. We're talking about salvation when we're talking about the very core of what our joy is in our soul, it is Jesus Christ. Christian, you are meant to be sanctified. You are meant to be holy. You are meant to be those who love the law of the Lord. But the law of the Lord you love because you love Jesus. Don't get that mixed up. Don't get that mixed up. We don't follow the law just because we love the law. We follow the law because we love the lawgiver and the law keeper, Jesus Christ.
Once we start thinking about separating those apart, and we lose sight of Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, the one who kept the law at every point, we start losing our joy. You start losing your joy. When people will say you got a cling to the sign. When people will say you gotta cling to the works, you say, “No, I gotta cling to Jesus Christ and his finished work.” Indeed, these Judaizers, Paul calls them the mutilation. They're saying that they're the circumcision. They're saying that they're the real Jews, and Paul says, “They're not real Jews. They’re mutilators. What they're doing isn't any good. They're just scarring people up.” It's not joy. It's not what you're to be doing.
And you gotta watch out for these people. Watch out. There are people who will come into the church like this. There are people who will rise up from within the body like this, and you gotta watch out because they have soft wool, but they got sharp teeth like wolves. You gotta be careful. You need to make sure that it is Jesus Christ who is your joy. It is not the works of the flesh. It's not the things that we've done. It is not us keeping the law, but Jesus, who is our author and perfecter of faith. He is our joy. He is our finished work. And as we keep going through in these next three weeks, verses eight through eleven are filled with this language of Jesus Christ and His resurrection being our joy and our hope. So you got to watch out. You should rejoice and you gotta watch out.
But you need to realize something. Your final point is you are God's child. You are God's child. Look with me at verse three, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” You, Christian, are the circumcision. You are the circumcision. What does circumcision mean here? How is Paul using this idea of circumcision? Circumcision equals God's people. Circumcision equals the covenant. Circumcision equals the sign of God's promises to his people. And Paul here is telling the church, these Gentile believers and some of them God-fearers who have become Christians, “You are God's chosen people. You are His holy nation. You are His nation of priests. You are the circumcision. You are his Children.”
Just step back for a second. What a great privilege that is! You are God's child! You are the circumcision. You who have been circumcised, not in the flesh, but what did Deuteronomy 10 talk about? Who were the true circumcision? Those who were circumcised in the heart.
Turn in your Bibles, keep your thumb in Philippians chapter three, we're gonna come back, but turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter two. Roman's chapter two, and we'll be looking at verses 13 through 29. Roman's Chapter two, beginning at verse 13. Page 1000, that's convenient. “(For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
“Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For ‘the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,’ as it is written.
“For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.” This is important here. “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
Circumcision was never about the physical sign. It was a physical sign that was supposed to point towards an inward reality. Likewise, in you, Christian, it doesn't matter if you've been baptized in an RP church if your heart is far from God, you are not a Christian. We can't rest upon the things, the signs, the keeping of the law. It's gotta be about Jesus Christ. He is the reason we are Christians. He is the reason why we are Jews, because He's taken our heart of stone. He's done heart surgery. He’s taken that heart of stone out and transplanted it with a heart that beats for him. We are Jews who are those inwardly. What joy you have, Christian, that He has done this work in you, that He has regenerated you, that He has cleansed you that He has made you His own. You are the circumcision.
And there's two tests I'd like to put in front of you today. And the first test is: Ask yourself, am I worshipping in the Spirit? That's your first test, to ask your own soul, am I worshipping in the Spirit? Look with me at verse three, “We are the circumcision,” qualification one, “who worship God in the Spirit.” Peter tells us in First Peter 2:9, “We are a royal priesthood.” And why that matters here is this idea of who worship God in the Spirit, some of your translations might say, “who serve God by the Spirit.” This is the Greek word, “latreuo.” This is a word that was used almost exclusively in the Old Testament for the Levitical priests who would go into the temple and would offer sacrifices. God is saying to you here, are we those, are you one of those, who serve God in the Spirit? Do you worship him in the Spirit?
This is why it was so important a few weeks ago that we turned to Jesus's own words in John chapter four, where Jesus goes to the woman at the well. Do you remember that story from a few weeks ago? And Jesus tells her that it is neither on this mountain nor on that mountain where the true worshippers will worship, but God is seeking, and even now has those who are worshipping in Spirit and in truth. The Father is seeking such as these. And she leaves. The woman of Samaria leaves that well, and she goes into the town, and what she doesn't do is she doesn't go into the town and say, “Oh, I’ve finally done it all. I’ve finally kept the law. I’ve finally done everything right.” That's not what she does. The woman at the well goes into the town and says, “Come see the man who's told me everything I've ever done. Is this not the Christ?” She knows who Jesus is because she's had an encounter with the living God, and she begins to worship in Spirit and in truth. Because in that encounter with God, she has seen the truth. Who she’s supposed to worship. The Messiah. The king. She goes back because her heart is filled with joy, and she can't wait to tell everyone in the town, the people who she avoided. Now she comes, and she wants to tell them about Christ.
It's not because of the things that you have done, but when you come into worship, are you worshipping by the Spirit? Is the Spirit in you? Is the Spirit working in you and working through you? Do you love Jesus Christ? Is He your joy? Is He your hope? Is He your boast?
That's your second test. The second test, you should write this down. Test number one: am I worshipping in the Spirit? Test number two: Is Christ my joy? Is Christ my joy? Again, verse three. Philippians three, verse three, “For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit,” qualification number two, “rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” This idea that “rejoice in Christ Jesus,” it's fine for the translation, but a more literal translation would be “Christ is my boast.” Christ is my confidence. Christ is my glory. Christ is my joy. Is Christ your boast? Is Christ your confidence? Is Christ your joy? Is Christ your end all and be all, is it Jesus Christ who is your joy? Are you rejoicing in Him or are you putting confidence in the flesh? Are you caught putting confidence in who you are and what you have done? What's your confidence? Is your confidence in this world? Is your confidence how big your retirement account is, how clean your house is, how well behaved your children and grandchildren are? What's your confidence in this world? It must be Christ. What's your confidence in your spirit? Is your confidence because you were raised in an RP church, you were baptized as a Christian, and that you have come to church regularly every single Sunday? Is it “because I've,” “because I've,” “because I've?” Or is it because Jesus has done it? What's your confidence? What’s your boast? What's your joy? It must be in Jesus Christ. It must be all about Him. Our confidence must not be in ourselves. It must not be our works. It must not be our pedigree. It must not be anything but Jesus Christ.
And the Scriptures are replete and clear about this. For it is by faith, we are saved by grace, and not a production of works, lest any man should boast. We know that it's because He has saved us by grace through faith. It's not us, it’s not our works. We can't boast about it. But the free gift of God is this: “That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We were dead and Christ did it! What a Joy, Christian. What a joy you have in your Savior. He must be your boast. He must be the one why you want to come to worship, because you want to sit at Jesus’s feet. You want to sing Jesus's words. You want to hear about Jesus Christ. You want to hear about what He has done in history and what He is doing now in your life and in this world.
He is our joy. Don't let anyone take it. Don't let anyone take it. The world will try to. Satan will try to rip it out of you. Don't let him! Cling to Christ. Hold on to Him. I'm talking about with a death grip clinging on to Jesus. When the world is falling apart around, you can cling to Christ. When everything is going right in your life, cling to Christ. When you're being attacked and you're being belittled, cling to Christ. When you're feeling self-righteous and you're doing everything right, get down on your knees and thank God and cling to Jesus Christ. We must have a life, a Christian life that is bearing witness to Christ. Run to him. Cling to him. Rejoice in him all the days of your life. For eternity that's what you're gonna be doing. In Heaven you're gonna be singing praises to Jesus, the lamb sitting on that throne. When eternity comes and you pass into glory, your joy is gonna be complete because you're gonna be singing the praises of Jesus Christ. You're gonna be casting your crown upon His feet and saying, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.” This is our joy, and we have it now, and we'll have it for eternity. Go there, often. Drink deeply from that well. Never let it dry up. Always be filled with joy.
Let's pray. “God, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for Jesus. God, we pray that you would indeed, by your Spirit, apply these words to our hearts and to our lives. God, we pray that we would live this out. God we pray that you would forgive us for how often we put confidence in our flesh and our works. Lord, please forgive us and incline us to you. Lord, fill our eyes and our hearts with love and gratitude for you. We pray these things, knowing that you hear us, because we pray them in Jesus's name. Amen.”
Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week. God bless you.