We're gonna read together this morning from Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three, verses 19 to 31. Let's listen to God's word together now. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who is faith in Jesus. then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one. who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Let's pray as we come to God's word now. Lord, we thank you for your word. And we know that as it is preached, you are putting it into our lives and into our hearts. We pray, Lord, that you would prepare our hearts now so that the seed that is sown goes into good soil. that we are ready to hear, that we are ready to believe, that we are ready to do, so that by your Spirit, you would bring a harvest of righteousness in our lives that is 30 and 50 and 100 fold. We pray that you would do this through your Spirit for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning we're continuing in our series in the book of Philippians, and we're going to be reading together Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. That's Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. Let's listen to God's word now. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it 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 Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul in this passage is really talking about what matters in life. What is valuable to you? So I'll ask that to you. What do you value in your life? What have you invested in or what is really important to you? We had to get homeowner's insurance recently. One of the questions they ask is estimate, just rough estimate, how much everything in your house is worth? Try to put a dollar figure on your computers and your chairs and everything else you own. That was a really hard question, partly because we don't own a lot and partly because I don't think about money that much. But it got me thinking about what we value. And most things in our life are things that we value and we really can't put a dollar figure on. Like our relationships. Or our families. These are so valuable to us. And whatever we think is valuable is what we build our lives around. It's what we think about. It's what we prioritize. It's what we care about. Well, Paul says there's one thing There is really one person who is so valuable that everything else in the world pales in comparison. You already know the answer. It's Jesus. Paul points us back to Christ as the most valuable thing that we could ever have. But there's a challenge. We know the answer, but there's a challenge this morning. Do we believe it? And do our lives more and more reflect our value of knowing Christ? So as we think about those questions, we're going to see the main idea of this passage is that Jesus Christ is the most valuable thing in the world because we have salvation only in Him. Jesus Christ is the most valuable thing in the world because we have salvation only in Him. As Paul goes through this passage, he's going to show us two things. The first is a danger, the danger of confidence in the flesh. This is verses 1 to 6. And then secondly, the worth, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ in verses 7 to 11. So first, the danger of confidence in the flesh. Now, if you look at verse one, you see that we are beginning a whole new section in the book of Philippians. Paul says, finally. Now, obviously, the letter goes on for a little bit more. He's not saying this is the only thing I'm gonna talk about, but he's opening up the last big topic or the last big section of the letter. And he begins this new section with a reminder of many of the things he's talked about before, because he says, rejoice in the Lord. Remember joy and joy in the Lord is a major theme in the book of Philippians. But why does Paul tell the Philippians now at this point in the letter to rejoice in the Lord? Well, he's reminding them of this because he is about to tell them a threat to their gospel joy. It's gonna be the threat of legalism. So he is reminding them of what they have in the Lord. They have been saved in the Lord. That's what they've received, salvation. And this is how they respond, with joy. Rejoice in the Lord. Praise Jesus for his salvation. They keep that in mind, that when they see this danger, they'll be able to fight against it. Now, the second part of verse 1 looks ahead to this danger. Paul doesn't say what it is, but he says, I'm writing the same things to you. I've already told you about dangers in the church. And he tells them that it's not just easy for him to do. He says, it's no trouble for me to warn you, but he's also writing these things again because it is safe for you. And in verse two, we see the danger, and it's the danger of a false gospel. Paul says, look out, three times, look out for people who are preaching and living a false gospel. He calls them the dogs, the evildoers, the people who mutilate the flesh. This is vivid descriptions of false teachers. This is not the only time that Paul uses this kind of language. The whole book of Galatians is filled with these kinds of descriptions. And it's because the very same people that were affecting the Galatian church are also a danger to the Philippians. These were people who said that salvation, being right with God, was through what you did, especially through circumcision and following the Old Testament laws. That was subtle. This was a subtle error, because they would say, Jesus is great, believe in Jesus, but, You need something else as well. Jesus plus circumcision. Jesus plus keeping the law. Jesus plus something else. And that explains why Paul is so worked up in this verse. He's calling them these names. He's warning the Philippians in very strong language because these men, these false teachers are a threat to the gospel. Salvation itself is at stake. Now Paul counters this danger in verse 3 by reminding the Philippians of the truth. He says, we, we Christians, we believers, we are the circumcision. This is an amazing, surprising statement because the we is Paul the Jew And the Philippian Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles are the true circumcision because we have what the sign of circumcision pointed to. Remember the point of circumcision in the Old Testament, it was a sign. It was a sign for God's people to show that they were in a relationship with him, that he claimed them as his own. Well, that's what we have now, because we are God's people through the work of Christ. We are the true circumcision, not because of something that happened to our bodies, but as God promised in the Old Testament, something that happened to our hearts. We have had our hearts circumcised by his Holy Spirit in salvation. Paul says we are the circumcision, and he gives us what that looks like. It's not just a body thing. It's a life thing. He says that we are marked by true worship by the Spirit and true salvation in Christ. Notice what he says in verse 3, that we glory in Christ and we put no confidence in the flesh. We glory in Christ, which means we trust completely in Jesus Christ our Savior, and we put no confidence, absolutely no confidence in the flesh. We do not think, we do not believe that we can be right with God through who we are and what we do. Now Paul, knows what it's like to have lived by putting confidence in the flesh. He knows what he's talking about. He knows the danger that the church is facing through these false teachers, because that was his life. That was what he believed, and that was how he lived. And he tells us about that in verses 4 to 6. Verses 4 to 6, Paul reflects on his life to show us what it looks like to put confidence in the flesh. And in these verses, he highlights kind of two areas where we can go wrong. The first is putting trust in status, and the second is putting trust in achievement. Paul, if you read this list here, this guy had a great spiritual resume. That's what it looks like on the outside. Status-wise, he was, as he says, circumcised. Tribe of Benjamin, Hebrews of Hebrews. He checked every box. But he went even further in his achievements. He was a Pharisee. He was one of the most strict people obeying the law. He said he was so zealous for the truth, so zealous for God, that he persecuted the church because they were not following the law. They were not doing what is right. And when people looked at him, they would see that he was blameless. in the law. They would see him and say, that man lives a righteous life. He looks like he is doing well. He had a right background. He had right actions. But he didn't realize that he was suffering from a fatal spiritual disease, which was pride. Paul trusted in his own status and his own achievements to make him right with God. It was his works and not God's grace that he thought saved him. What Paul sees in his own life as he looks back on his biography, this trust in ourselves, this is a constant danger to everyone. for unbelievers, this is where they go. Because they are trusting in who they are or what they do to be right with God. And we know from the teaching of scripture that that is a hopelessly flawed approach because we are sinners and what we do is sin. We cannot be right with a holy God by what we do if all that we do is sin. But this is still a threat and a danger for us as believers that we, yes, believe in Jesus Christ. That is amazing, but we still try to sneak in confidence in the flesh and other areas of our life. So often we live as Jesus plus something else. Paul says that's not going to cut it. That's not how you're saved. That's not how you grow in your salvation. That is not how you're saved at the final end. You are saved by knowing Christ. Put no confidence in the flesh, but value Christ. That's where we're going to turn secondly, to see the worth of knowing Christ in verses 7 to 11. As Paul looks at his life, he does really a stunning recalculation of everything he's valued. Everything that he thought was gain became loss for the sake of Christ. You know, the way Paul's thinking about this is kind of like with finances. You know, we've probably seen a profit and loss sheet. This is all the money that was coming in. This is all the money that went out. And if you have a lot in that profit column, you are doing really well. But what if you realized that as you looked at your profit and loss sheet for your family or for your business that you had made a big mistake and you would put all of those numbers in the wrong column? All of what you thought was gain was actually loss. How devastating would that be to realize your mistake? Well, when Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, he realized that he had made the wrong valuation in his life. He realized that all his status and his accomplishments, they weren't gains at all. He'd put them in the wrong column. They led to spiritual bankruptcy because they got in the way of his salvation. Paul realized for the first time when he met Christ that Christ was what mattered. And if he had Christ, then everything else didn't matter anymore. So he counted all those things, all those things he used to trust in, he counted them as loss for the sake of Christ. He didn't just throw them all out. I mean, it was good. Paul's background was still helpful. He had good training. He knew the Bible. But there was a big change in his life because Paul no longer put his trust in those things. That's really what it means to counter this loss. They will not help your salvation, and so you don't treat them as if they will. So Paul has this stunning recalculation in his life. He realized he's made a big mess of his numbers, a big mess of what he values, but he's discovered true treasure in Jesus Christ. Look at verse eight. This is where Paul really expands on this. He says, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I've said it before, I'll say it again, everything means everything. Everything is loss because Christ is worth infinitely more than the world could ever offer you. Paul counts everything as loss, family, Money, success, fame, comfort, whatever you can get in the world, he says those things pale in comparison to Jesus Christ. Sometimes that's obvious because we see that those things can't save you. They can't satisfy you. They cannot do what Jesus Christ can do for you. They cannot be who Jesus Christ can be for you. And as Paul sees Christ clearly now with the eyes of faith, that means he also views the world correctly now, because he compares the world to Christ. And when he holds Christ, he realizes that this is a precious stone. This is a pearl, this is a diamond, and everything else he has in his life, those things that he valued, those things that the world offers him, these are just little rocks. And when you see that contrast, then the choice is obvious to throw those other things away that are getting in the way of keeping Christ. Paul says it's not just Christ, but knowing Christ that is the key. He says, because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. He is talking about the infinite, eternal value of knowing Jesus. When he talks about knowing, he's talking about a relationship, a relationship with Christ, deep, personal, experiential, saving relationship so that you can say with Paul, Christ Jesus, my Lord. He is your Lord. He is your Savior. When we talk about knowing Jesus, we need to not confuse knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. It's really easy to know a lot about Jesus. We know the Bible, we know the truth, but it's a deadly spiritual mistake to only know about Jesus and not to really know Jesus, to have that living relationship with him by faith. And part of the reason this is such a deadly spiritual mistake is because the relationship is so worth it. When we know Christ, what do we have? We have salvation. We have eternal life and blessing. These can only be found in Jesus Christ alone. So think of what Paul says here, reminds us of what Jesus taught his disciples in his parables. Matthew 13, 45 to 46 is the parable of the pearl of great price. Remember he tells this parable about the kingdom of God. A merchant finds this pearl and it is so valuable that he sells everything else he owns in order to buy it. He knows it's worth and he sacrifices everything to have that. That's what Paul is saying. When we know Christ, when we have Christ, we are willing to give up everything else to have him. Paul goes even further. He says, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him." He's sounding even more extreme. It's not just that he is counting them as loss, but he is actually counting them as rubbish, as trash, as dung, as things that are worthless. Do you see how radically his life has now changed? Because what he once valued He finds disgusting and worthless. Why? Because it's getting in the way of Christ. He says, I counted those things that way. I counted them as rubbish in order so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. Paul is making a huge point here that gaining Christ, having Christ, requires counting everything else as rubbish. That doesn't mean those things are useless or unimportant, right? You don't have to become a monk and renounce all worldly goods to really be a Christian. But Paul says you have to know what counts, and you have to live that way. Christ counts. Christ matters. Everything else, even including good things, can't compare to Christ. And if we continue to try to find our salvation or our identity in things around us, then we will never find true salvation and satisfaction in Christ alone. That's what he's describing here. The joy, really, of salvation in Christ, to gain Christ and to be found in him. Christ is the treasure. Christ is the true gain. Paul's thinking very clearly about verse seven, where he thought he had gained. He said, no, that's not gain. Christ is the true gain. And what I have is more than just having him. I am found in him. I am united to him. I am connected to him as the vine is connected to the branches. That is true now, but Paul's also thinking about the future. When Jesus returns, what we have in our relationship with Christ will be shown publicly. We will be vindicated as those who have been connected to Jesus Christ. So as Paul thinks about what it means to have Christ and why that is so valuable, he says you are connected to Christ and you share in every single thing that he has done for you now, And you're going to have so much more of that in the future. Now gaining Christ and being found in Him is related to righteousness. It's related to being right with God because the only way we can have Christ is if we are right with a holy God. And Paul goes on to talk about that. He says he wants to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but a righteousness which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. This is the issue that's at stake in the gospel. This is the issue with the false teachers, that they do not understand the way we are made right with God. They don't understand justification. All of us know that we need righteousness. We are sinners. We have sinned against a holy God. We need to be right in God's eyes. Well, those Judaizers and the old Paul, they thought you could gain that righteousness through the law if you just obeyed well enough, God would accept you. But that's not true. Paul says in Romans 3, we read it earlier, for by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight. It's impossible. It's impossible. We've all sinned, and we've broken God's law. We cannot keep his law perfectly, and that's exactly what is required if we're going to seek righteousness in the law. Perfect, personal, perpetual obedience. That's what we would have to do if we wanted to be righteous by keeping God's law, but we haven't, and we can't. So how can we be righteous? How can we have what we need? Well, Paul says we can have righteousness which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. When we put our faith in Christ, our sins are forgiven and we are counted as righteous. We trust in Jesus Christ and his righteousness for us and his righteousness, what he has done by perfectly obeying God's law, it gets counted as ours. This is what Paul means in Romans 3 when he talks about the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He says, we are justified or counted as righteous in God's eyes, freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith. This is not a righteousness that we have earned or deserved. God gives it freely to us by his grace. And even our faith is not a way to earn that righteousness. Our faith is the way that we receive it, but it does not contribute toward us. So what Paul means here when he's talking about finding Christ, gaining Christ, and being found in him, Paul means that in Christ, We have absolutely everything we need. We have true righteousness from God through faith in Christ. But there's far more to gaining Christ and to being found in him. There's far more to our salvation. And we see that in verses 10 to 11. Paul says he wants to be found in Christ that I may know him. Paul in these verses is describing what the Christian life looks like, what the Christian life feels like, what does it mean to be found in Christ now, and to be looking forward to be found in Christ later. And Paul begins by repeating himself. He says, my goal is to know Christ. It is to have that deep, personal, ongoing, saving relationship with Jesus Christ. But now Paul tells us what knowing Christ looks like in our lives now. And he says two things. Knowing Christ means knowing the power of his resurrection and knowing the fellowship of his sufferings. Knowing Christ, having a relationship with Christ means experiencing both of those things right now at the same time. It seems like a paradox to experience both as resurrection and as suffering at the same time. How can we experience things that seem so completely different? Resurrection and suffering, they seem like polar opposites. But Paul is simply explaining the pattern of the Christian life. We do experience the power of Christ's resurrection on a daily basis. We share in Jesus's resurrection. God has brought us to life through his Holy Spirit and that same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that is constantly at work in us. We really do have powerful resurrection life flowing through our spiritual veins by the presence of the Holy Spirit. You want to know more about that, look at Romans 6. This is what Paul talks about, the present reality of sharing in Christ's resurrection, the way it changes our lives. But at the very same time, at the very same time that we share in his resurrection, we also share in Jesus's sufferings. We suffer like Christ because we are connected to him. we share in the fellowship of his sufferings. God conforms us to the image of his son, Jesus Christ, and that means being conformed to Jesus now in his suffering. That is not a truth that we often like to hear, but God has made suffering necessary, not optional, for our salvation. You know, what Paul is saying here is something that we've seen many times, that we share in Christ. And if we share in Christ, that means we share in everything. What is true of him is made true in us. That's why we share in his resurrection and in his sufferings. But Paul says there's more because this present experience of resurrection and suffering, it leads somewhere. Look at the end of verse 10 into 11. Paul says that the goal is to become like Jesus in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Notice Paul's goal in his suffering? It's to become like Christ in his death. You know, if someone asked you what your goal was as a Christian, that's probably not what you would answer, to be like Christ in his death. But if Paul says it, it means this is a biblical goal. This is a good thing for us to want. But what does Paul mean? Well, in our suffering for Christ, we more and more share in the death of Christ by putting to death the sinful deeds of the body. Look at Romans chapter eight. That's one aspect of becoming like him in his death, being dead to sin and killing sin in our lives. But we know that it's not just spiritual. Sharing in his death is not just a spiritual reality. We will also share in Jesus's death when we physically die as well. But where does this spiritual and physical death lead? Well, it leads to resurrection, that by any means possible I will do this, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Paul is so committed to suffering with and dying with Jesus now because he knows that this is the way and the only way that he will fully share in Jesus' resurrection. Resurrection only comes through death. Now you might read these words of Paul and think, Paul wasn't so sure about the outcome because he says, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. But that's not doubt. That's honest faith. Because Paul is capturing the difficulty of the Christian life. It is difficult to die with Christ. That requires commitment on our part, it requires the power of the Holy Spirit, being conformed to Christ, sharing in his suffering, being like him in his death, so that we can attain the resurrection of the dead. That is a painful process, it is a hard process, but it is a process that God guarantees. Resurrection. Your resurrection, body and soul, is guaranteed. Our spiritual and physical death with Christ now leads to spiritual and physical resurrection with Him. all the things that Paul has said here about sharing in the resurrection and the suffering, the death and the full resurrection of Christ. This is what it means to know Christ, to be so closely connected to him that we share in his resurrection life and in his sufferings at the same time so that we will one day pass through death and share in the fullness of resurrection with him. This is the hope of the passage. This is really the hope of a gospel, to value Christ, because in Christ we have, and will have even more, absolutely everything that we need. This leads us to one very simple point of application as we close, and it's this, believe the true gospel. believe the real Savior, value Christ. Paul says that our salvation is at stake in what we think of Christ and how we value him. For some people, Christ doesn't really matter. It's about them and who they are and what they do. God will accept them because of them. Sometimes that attitude sounds like, you know, I'm a good person. I haven't done too many bad things. Or it sounds like, I've really accomplished a lot in my life. People really look up to me and respect me. Sometimes, though, that kind of attitude is kind of a religious veneer, a religious focus. You know, I went forward many years ago, or I've gone to church every week. That's why God will accept me. Whatever that attitude sounds like, It is trusting in the wrong thing, because if God were to ask you right now why he should let you into heaven, you really only have two answers, me or Jesus. Those are the only two options. You are either trying to find your righteousness in yourself in the many different ways, or you are finding it in Jesus Christ alone. The Bible is so clear, Jesus alone saves you. And he saves everyone who humbly turns from their prideful attempts to be right with God and puts their faith in him. Now for those of us who believe the gospel and we put our faith in Jesus, then we value knowing Christ above everything else. We know what Paul is talking about here and we value Not just knowing Christ in the abstract, but by knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection, we know what that's like in our life. And we know the value of knowing Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings. There's nothing like it in the world. We wouldn't trade it for anything. But there's a constant pressure, do you feel it? There's a constant pressure to value other things alongside Christ. Remember Christ plus something else. It can be subtle, but it is always there. We're always being pressured to turn away from Christ or add something. to Christ. It could be Christ plus lifestyle, Christ plus how I'm doing, Christ plus a certain kind of holiness or a certain way we do church or something else. And it can be so attractive and it can look so good. But it won't work. Because the good news is that Christ is the only answer. And Christ is worth so much more than anything else. If you add anything to Christ, you are cutting his value to zero. Nothing else compares to him. Nothing else in the world compares to him. And the good news is that we know that, we value him, and God promises to help us to grow like Paul. to value Christ so much more. You know, the more that we value Christ, the more that we love Christ, the less attractive all those other false saviors really seem. I mean, where else can you find free forgiveness from every sin? Where else can you find abundant, eternal life? Where else can you find peace and hope and love? Where else can you find salvation? Nowhere but in Christ. So as we close, know and believe and grow in this, that Jesus is the most valuable thing in the world because we have salvation in him and only in him. Amen, let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the good news of the gospel, that Jesus Christ, and knowing him, and being found in him, being connected to him, and sharing with him in everything. Lord, that that is what we need, and what we have needed as sinners is what you have given us graciously. We thank you that Jesus, our Savior, lived, and died for us and now that being connected to him by faith we have him and in him we have every single blessing that we would ever want or ever need. We pray that you would help us to value Jesus Christ above everything and everyone else. We pray that we would know that he is that precious pearl worth everything As we sang earlier, that all those things that attract us, that we would sacrifice them to his blood and serve him with all that we are and all that we have. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.