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For our sermon text tonight, we're going to be working through Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. So if you will please stand while turning to Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. Philippians 3, 1 through 3. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ and put no confidence in the flesh. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, that you are our rock. We adore you for being our King. We adore you for being the one who has done all things. We ask that you would use your word tonight to teach us, to convict us, to encourage us, May all that is said from this pulpit tonight that is true and right and what you will, may we believe those things. And so, Lord, may you be glorified tonight. May we honor you as the one to whom all glory is due, to whom all boast should be found. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. The topic tonight is very much, I should say the topic of this text is very much a kind of classic Christian topic that surely we've thought of more than a couple times. But it's always an important topic for us to think through. That's why these things often occur in scripture over and over and over again. We have a God that knows our hearts and he knows what we need to hear repeatedly given who we are. And so the first question tonight is, where is your confidence when it comes to your relationship with God? Where do you place your chips? Are all your eggs in one basket? Are they in many baskets when it comes to what makes you right with your infinite and almighty creator? Different religions, as you know, have different takes on this. Some religions will say, well, you and your relationship with God, that's really basically entirely dependent on you. You're the player. You're the investor. You're the one who's responsible. Others would say, well, it's a bit of a mix, isn't it? God does a lot of great things. God is really merciful. God is really loving. He does a ton, but it's still partly because of me. And yet the Christian religion, the religion of scripture very clearly states what is our confidence, it's all in one basket, it's not mixed at all. All of our confidence is in one place. It's in God and God alone. And yet you might get the knock on the door from the people who believe otherwise. The people who think from these other religions all around us that knocking door to door is part of what makes them right with God. Or other religions that say, well, it's your 10% tithe every single month. That's what's contributing to what makes you right with God. Or other religions say, no, no, no. It's your five prayers every day, and it's that one trip of your life that you finally make it to Mecca. That is partly what makes you right with God. The gospel says something very different. It is not mixed, and all of your confidence is really only in one place. We're hitting here yet kind of another hinge in Philippians. The past couple weeks, we've been talking about people like Timothy, people like Epaphroditus, and Timothy puts both of them in front of us and says, one, here's a model of what I've been talking about, of what it means to be like Christ and put others in front of yourself. And the other, he says, honor people like this. This is the one I want you to rightly and justly honor. But now we're doing a bit of a switch. It's not look at these people or honor these people, it's be very, very aware of these people. Look out for these people. If those before this like Timothy and Epaphroditus were good, those that we're gonna hear about tonight are bad. It's not look with love, it's look with fear. be very aware. So two points tonight. One is reject confidence in the flesh. Point number two, rejoice in the confidence in Christ. So number one, reject the confidence in the flesh. Number two, rejoice in the confidence you have in Christ. Verse number one, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it's safe for you. So Paul's sort of, that first sentence there, rejoice. It's not just a throwaway line, even though he talks about rejoicing quite a lot in Philippians, doesn't he? Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, joy, joy, joy. You hear that throughout the whole book. And it's a great thing. And this final line again about rejoicing is setting up the entirety of the chapter. He's yet again going to be explaining how to have that rejoicing like he has while he's in prison. But he moves on to say something pretty interesting. He says, to write these same things to you, it's not a hindrance to me. It's not a problem or trouble for me. And it's safe for you. Another way you could put it, it's for your best interest. And this imagery of safety that Paul is using here is a sort of safety of to keep you from falling down, to protect you from stumbling from deceit. It's the sort of safety that's often described when it's talked about cities who are about to be attacked, but they have proper defenses. And maybe that's part of the imagery he's using, because if you remember, at the end of chapter one, he talks about us as gospel citizens, belonging to one city, one community. But he's talking about, I'm writing these things for your safety. Now, what does that imply? It implies that there may be something that is very unsafe around them. There may be a threat that is ever present. So moving on to verse two, he says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evil doers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Look out, look out, look out. Somebody, some group is in, around, about the church. Enough for him to say three times in a row, be aware, be aware, watch out. And coming back to those ideas of false religions like I talked about, they're all around, aren't they? I mean, you go to the mall and there's a booth. You're walking on the beach, someone approaches you. You're just sitting on the couch in your house again. I'm with the Watchtower Society, and I'd love to have a conversation with you. May I come in, please? Some of you may say, yes, please come in. Let's talk. And others may be like, well, this is a bit strange. I don't quite know what to do. The poll is saying, look out. Someone, something is all around. There is a counterfeit religion, as we're gonna see in the end of verse three. A counterfeit religion that puts confidence, not in Christ, but puts confidence in the flesh. And as you read the Bible, you'll notice something about the enemy. Satan loves to imitate. Satan loves to produce counterfeits. Counterfeit religions, counterfeit practices, counterfeit things that often look a lot like what God's doing. A great example is think about Moses when he's before Pharaoh. God tells Aaron to throw down the staff and it becomes a snake. And what happens? Pharaoh has these wise men and they throw down their staffs and they become snakes. It's interesting. Or you think about also in the book of Revelation, there's this beast, this false prophet, and the beast even dies and comes back to life to deceive the people, why? Because who else has died and come back to life to change the world? He is an imitator. The false religions, the counterfeits that He has made are all around us. And they often look very similar to us. The buildings that they meet in, the stories that they tell about their life changing, the warmth that they may offer, the language that they use, the morals that they often live by, sometimes looks very, very similar. And in His counterfeiting, in His imitating, There's almost nothing that he can't imitate. Think about your shadow. If you're in the light, everywhere you move, the shadow is mimicking everything you're doing, but it's not you. It's a darker version of who you are as a shadow of light next to you. Very same, like the imitation of Satan. He can imitate anything and everything that the church is doing, but tainting, darkening, deceiving through it. And so there's really kind of three main types. of counterfeiting and imitating that he often does that you see in scripture. There's one, the classic doctrinal imitation and counterfeit, right? You see these things in the New Testament like, well, there's these antichrists who deny that Jesus even came in the flesh. We read about in 1 John. Or people in 1 Corinthians who deny the very fact that Jesus rose from the dead bodily. That's kind of the classic doctrinal counterfeit. But then there's also these other counterfeits that you see, say, for instance, in the false prophets, where they're saying, relax. They're trying to take away from the commands of God. They say, just hang out. There's one, I think it's, what's his name? I think it's Zedekiah, where he's a false prophet and he gets these huge horns. He puts on like a helmet with horns and he starts goring things in the court of the king. And he says, Ahab, Ahab, rejoice. No need to fear. You don't need to repent of your idols. God is going to use you and your armies to gore the enemy like I just did. And yet the true prophet Micaiah comes and says, no chance. You've been walking contrary to the Lord. And now he is bringing judgment. So that's sort of the relaxed imitation and counterfeit. And then also the one that we sometimes forget about is the sort of adding on imitation. Sometimes false teaching doesn't make things easier. Sometimes false teaching tries to make things harder. And there's a part of us that likes to do it, where there's more commands, more needs that are layered on top of what scripture calls us to do. In 1st Timothy, there's this section where Paul says some of you are going to encounter false teaching where they say you can't get married. You can't eat certain foods. Or in Colossians, Paul talks about some of you are saying you need to do certain religious feasts. You need to have certain special days where they're lumping on and adding new things that are contrary to Scripture. We even see that today. You're not a Christian unless you spoke in tongues when you got saved. If you didn't speak in tongues, you're not a Christian. It's that simple. That is adding to God's word. And so Paul uses three very ironic names to describe these false teachers. He calls them dogs, evil workers, and mutilators. He says, reject, beware of, look out for the dogs. Now he uses this term, all three of these, as ironies. A lot of people in their research have found that the Jews used to call the Gentiles dogs. One reason why? The Jews said, we are the chosen people. We are the holy ones. We are set apart. They are like unclean, filthy, street scavenging dogs. throughout Scripture are used as filthy animals often, right? Think about Jezebel when she's cast down from the tower. What eats all of her body? Filthy, disgusting dogs. Think about in New Jerusalem. The first people on the list of those who are left out in verse 15 of chapter 22 in Revelation, it's the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the liars. But Paul here is inverting this sort of slur that the Jews often used of the Gentiles to say, no, no, no, these false teachers, these ones are the dogs. The imitation religion, the counterfeit that Paul is fighting against and warning against here, isn't just some broad world religion. We begin to see here, it's a sort of Judaizing. Somebody trying to make the gospel, make Christianity, into a sort of rehashed Judaism, where now there are these works of circumcision that you still have to do. And Paul says, no, no, no. They are the dogs. They are unclean. Even if they are obeying all these things outside of Christ, they are the unclean ones. And so he says to reject, look out for the evil workers, though they may uphold the Torah and all the laws, their works outside of Christ are evil. And Jesus even uses these same words in Luke 13 when he says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, you evil workers, I never knew you. And then finally, Paul says, reject those who mutilate. And here he's talking about circumcision. Those who are demanding circumcision to be a Christian. He's saying, they're Cutting, their circumcising is a bloody, worthless mutilation outside of Christ. It's not different than pagan cutting if you're not in Jesus. So all the things here, the pattern behind these names and what we're gonna see in verse three is that there's a confidence, not in who God is, but it's a confidence in self. That's why Paul says, we are those who glory in Christ and put no confidence in the flesh. What does it mean to have a confidence in the flesh or confidence in self though? Again, it's like those religions. It's a mix. God does a lot. God might do most to make me and him right, to save me and bring me to heaven with him forever. He might do 99% of it. But if there's a 1% that's still me, that's responsible for why I'm with him, there's a sort of confidence in the flesh and a confidence in self. That is what Paul is railing against, adding to the gospel. It's worth reflecting though, why do you and me, why do we like to have confidence in the flesh? And as I was thinking on these things, it reminded me of the five solas, especially four of them. And it's like, okay, we think through, we're justified, saved by, grace alone, faith alone, for God's glory alone, Christ alone, these things. Confidence in the flesh really begins to hedge and buffer against those things. I mean, who likes to always live by faith? tested, brought to your limits, having to let go constantly. It's not always easy, is it? Or we want a piece of the pie. We want the glory. We want to boast in the good things that we have done. And even with grace, as sinful people with works nature, we want to earn. We want to work for the things that we get. Much of who we are, loves to trust in self. But when we trust in self, if those in Philippi would have been listening to these false teachers, these Judaizers, that even that 1%, you're leaning upon something that's broken, something that's polluted, something that's unable. Because think of ourselves, what do we bring? What do we offer to God? We can offer our true repentance. We can offer our contrition and sadness. We can offer a plea for forgiveness. But at the end of the day, all those things are just means by which He brings us to know Him as we rest and trust in His promises. Anything else that we offer, it's tainted. Anything good we've ever done has come from Him anyways, hasn't it? It's all been a gift. But thankfully, for those who do not place confidence in the flesh, who don't see their relationship with God as mixed in any way, they can see it's all of Christ. And if it's all of Christ, that means God cannot love you any more than He already does. He cannot help you in love and grace and mercy and any more than he does with Christ. He loves his own son as much now as he loves you, even in your brokenness, even in your mistakes, even when you don't fulfill the law perfectly, even if you haven't done all these things that God has often called you to do, he cannot love you anymore. Some of you might be thinking, though, why is Paul so scathing? Calling them dogs? Mutilators? This is pretty harsh and sharp language. But think about this. What is at stake? What's being compromised by these false teachers? I mean, it's really the heart of the gospel itself, isn't it? They're saying it's what I add, what I do, what I contribute, and that is poisoning the well. Just imagine, how would you respond if you were in the middle of a desert with 10 other people awaiting rescue and survival, and there is one water source, and you catch somebody tainting and polluting the one and single water source that will sustain you and all 10 other survivors? You would have a couple of sharp and harsh words, I would imagine. And so too Christ. Look at Matthew 23. The kind of fountainhead of religious teaching at that moment was the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were the leaders. They were the ones speaking and preaching to the people. And what sort of words did he use? Those who were tainting and polluting God's holy word. Christ called them vipers, serpents. He said, you're going to hell. He had some pretty harsh words, didn't he? And so, too, Paul is using this sharp language because of the severity and the criticalness of what is at stake. If we or they, the Philippians or ourselves, begin to fall in, though, to this confidence in self, it produces some pretty bitter fruit. And many of us know this, right? The second we begin to think, I'm good with God because of X, and X is anything but God himself, it begins to grow all sorts of pride. We become arrogant. We start to look down on people. We start to think, I've done it right, they're doing it wrong. What's wrong with them? Why can't they look at me? We also fall into despair. We think, why can't I just get it like them? Why can't I just obey? Why can't I just grow? Why can't I just mature? What is the technique I'm missing? What am I not doing quite right? Confidence in self and confidence in the flesh will always slowly but very surely produce a very, very bitter fruit. So beware, beware, beware of confidence in self. That is what Paul is saying. Point number two, rejoice in the confidence in Christ. Again, verse three, he says, for we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. They're the mutilators. They're the ones who do the cutting and the scourging for no reason of no value. And we are the true circumcision. You think back to Genesis 17, when God first instituted this sign and seal of his covenant with Abraham. It was a mark. The blade of the knife cutting off the skin was to show something, to show that these people belong to God, and the cutting away showed two very important things in light of that. Either this male heir will be cut off from the covenant and the community like the skin, or their hearts will be cut deep and circumcised, and they will truly and really belong to me. And Paul says, that sign, the physical sign itself, apart from Jesus, is just mutilation. Circumcision has nothing to do with whether or not you are a Christian. Millions and millions of Christians are not circumcised physically. It's a circumcision of the heart. And Paul says, we as the church, you church in Philippi, we are the real circumcision. We are the real people of God. And he even uses this imagery in his epistle to Colossians. He says, who was the one circumcised? Paul describes the cross as the circumcision that was not made by hands, as Christ himself is cut off for his people, as he is the one who is judged and cut off from God and rises in newness of life. Romans chapter two, Galatians six, we are the true heirs of Abraham. We are the expansion of Israel, those who have come by faith, not those who have been cut in the flesh. Paul also says, we are those who serve by the spirit. If the evil workers find their righteousness in some way by obeying the law and observing old religious rites, Paul says, we're not obeying in our own strength. We're not worshiping and serving by what we do. It's by how, by who? It's by the Spirit. It's the Spirit of Christ who is empowering us, working in us for us to worship faithfully. He's the one, as we've been learning in Sunday school, who bears all that wonderful and rich fruit of meekness. He is the one who empowers us to do all that God has called us to do. Many of us know this from experience. When you're having these conversations, or when you're doing something that you just, you know deeply that that wasn't me. something you said, something you were able to handle, something that you've never done before because you were so afraid, you know, Lord, that was you working in me. And again, who else was the one that had to be empowered by the Spirit? John Owen, in one of his books on the glory of Christ talks about Jesus himself. As a human being, he had to be empowered, animated, through the Holy Spirit to do his ministry, to do his miracles, to do the works that God had called him to do. And so too, Paul says, we, as Christians, are empowered by the Spirit, like Christ, not obeying the law and ourselves. And then finally, he says, we are those who boast in Christ, not in the flesh. If boasting in the flesh, confidence in the flesh is, again, the mix of some of it belongs to God, some of it belongs to me, the boast in the glory of Christ is 100% all the eggs, one basket, all the chips on the table, Christ alone. He's done it all. He has accomplished everything. It is His will in everything. It is His glory in everything. Therefore, it is His praises in everything. We can boast in glory and praise Him above all and in every way. And some of us love doing this, especially when we're talking to non-Christians. It's like, Jesus has saved me from my sin. He has forgiven me from all these things that I have done that I am guilty and ashamed of. And it is Him and Him alone that has rescued me and has given me life and has given me all these gifts to use and steward for His glory as we boast and revel in His majesty and His goodness. So as we, on the one hand, have confidence in the flesh and that will bear bitter fruit, so too when we boast in glory in Christ, that will produce richer, more lovely, and more beautiful fruit. As we see and more deeply believe that we have once deserved wrath as children who were dark and dead spiritually, and now we've been rescued, that does produce a true humility, doesn't it? It produces something of a meekness like we heard today. A gentleness. Knowing that salvation is outside of you. If it's 100% Christ, that means you can't mess up your 1%. That means you can't throw the whole thing off from your faithlessness. And that creates a security. That creates a rest and a peace. Knowing that it is His merit and His reward, again, gives us hope. Gives us joy. Because we have something coming that we cannot ever imagine. Because we've never seen anything like it. Because we've never seen someone so faithful, so rewarded. And that is the hope that we have. Jesus Christ is the one who was truly set apart, truly holy, set apart from the very beginning of creation to be the seed who conquers the serpent, the one who is promised and progressively revealed in every covenant, the one who at his birth was set apart to be the savior of the world, the one who at his baptism was anointed by the spirit, the one who was so holy, so clean, he could touch a leopard and heal them on the spot. He is the one who has the truly good works. The one who really does obey where you and I have failed again and again. Who feeds those who are in need. Who heals those who are sick. Who casts out demons and was never afraid. The one who teaches and serves at every chance that he has. And he is, like I said earlier, the true circumcision. The one who was cut off, died in your place on the cross. No fellowship with the Father. No life for you only to be raised again in life. He knows where we have failed. He knows our very deep and dark secrets. He knows the things of the past and the things of the future where we will need his help. And yet he loves us. And yet He helps us, and yet He changes us, and continues to endure with us and not give up. That is the God that we worship. So where, church, is your confidence? Are you splitting the chips or are you putting all the chips in one place, all the eggs in the basket of Christ and Christ alone? We cannot trust himself. He is saying again tonight, trust me, look to me, love me, I will forgive. I will bring something new and I will bring you to live with me forever. So in Christianity, Do works count? The classic question. Are works important? Of course they are. It's the works of Christ above all that we rest in. It is what Jesus has done in His good works that we find peace, righteousness, and life. It's not a mix. It's not all us. It is all Christ. So may we stop putting confidence in the self, start putting confidence in the Savior. Let's pray. Lord, sometimes it is the simple good news that we can offer nothing and that you have done everything that reminds us of the sweetness that we have in you. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your day. We thank you that you are so merciful. We thank you that you encourage us through your word and that you teach us that you love us. I thank you for this church. I thank you for our service together. I thank you for the brothers and sisters here. May we fellowship sweetly. And may we find great strength, Jesus, that you have done it all. And so therefore all of our confidence must be in you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Where Is Your Confidence?
Series Philippians
- Reject Confidence In Self
- Rejoice In Confidence In Christ
Identificación del sermón | 2232271521439 |
Duración | 32:20 |
Fecha | |
Categoría | Domingo - PM |
Texto de la Biblia | Filipenses 3:1-3 |
Idioma | inglés |
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