All right, so I'm going to do this. I dropped all this stuff. It's OK. All right, so let's read these verses together. So we are in Philippians. And we are in the third chapter. Philippians is one of Paul's, they call him the prison epistles, but the reality, Paul was more like detained. He wasn't in full-fledged prison like he was when he wrote 2 Timothy. And there's a big difference. In 2 Timothy, that last letter that Paul writes to his beloved spiritual child, he is in full-fledged prison. He is suffering hardship, and he's getting ready to be crucified, excuse me, beheaded under Nero. And I do mean beheaded. Peter was crucified, and Paul was not. Why wouldn't Paul be crucified? Why wouldn't Paul be crucified? He didn't look like the same death as Jesus? Is that it? No, it's a Roman citizen. It was a Roman citizen. Crucifixion was not the topic of polite conversation. Crucifixion was a very horrid thing. And our idea of crucifixion is not usually congruent with the way they crucified back then. We tend to, if you grew up with the old-time Bible movies, it seemed like it was a 20-foot cross, and hanging up there like that, and they were dressed. That's not the way the Romans did it. The Romans sometimes would use an axe or sometimes they would use a cross, but you would be probably about maybe six foot, you were naked, and you didn't die right away. You lingered for days at a time, birds landing on you and all of that. So it was a very traumatic, heinous experience. not only for the individual that was undergoing it, but for those that were in that vicinity. And so I share that with you just because sometimes when we look at things anachronistically, looking behind with our vision, looking back, we fill in gaps with our understanding of things that may or may not have been that way. Just want us to just think about that. So up to this point, what have we learned in Philippians? Jesus. It's in the Bible. A bearded guy wrote it. Unity. What is the big deal with unity? Why is Paul emphasizing unity and is this only particular to Philippians? Or does Paul emphasize unity in other letters? First Corinthians, right? Galatians, right? There is this thing with unity, even in Ephesians. He's talking about this idea of unity because unity is important. This unity is not of God. This unity promotes chaos. It promotes strife and envy. It is not of God. And so this idea of unity and the oneness of the individual who redeemed us, who is Christ. So unity. What else is Paul talking about in Philippians? What else do we have in Philippians? And just your synopsis of it. You've been sitting here. You're intelligent. You know your Bibles. Encouraging. How are you encouraging Philippians? Oh, I don't think you should play with that. Thank you. OK, I'll just pick it up. And I'll give you. Here, take it. There you go. So good job. You got something. Yes, yes. How are you encouraging Philippians? Oh, you're asking about Will? He was, let's see, in chapter 1, he was talking about Christ beginning a good work, and then he would see them through. I mean, it was just encouragement. Anybody else? Christology of who Christ was, and His example of humility, even to death on the cross, and then because of that, therefore, continuing on. My goal is to not misspell any words today, so that I can just kind of, like said, Jim Brogan, man, I had one class where I didn't misspell anything, and everything was sort of legible. Sort of legible. What else? What's encouraging? You know, the reason I'm asking the question is because it makes no sense to get together in a Bible study to study something and just have head knowledge and not have any heart knowledge of it. It needs to be applied. All theology is practical. All doctrine is practical. And it has to be applicable to us in our lives. So where else are you encouraged in Philippians? Suffer well. Suffer well. It makes me think of Paul in 2 Timothy. Come, join me in suffering. You understand? They're like, yeah, Paul. So to suffer a lot, what do you mean by that, Don? I always talk about how you've been granted not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his sake. For his sake, to share. This is an important thing, because throughout Paul's letters, all of Paul's letters, we have this theme that really is underlying, and that is the believer's union with Christ. That is why, if you hear him say from behind the pulpit, we are not sinners, we are saints. Sinners are under the wrath of God, continually so. Saints are united with Christ. We are cleansed by the atoning work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. We struggle with sin. I'm not saying we're sinless. We struggle with sin, but we're not sinners. And that's a big categorical distinction. What else? What else is there in this letter? And I'm not just talking about what we read, the whole letter. If you suffer from anxiety, what verses do you usually go to? 467. Yeah, what's it say? Do not be anxious about anything. There's never going to be some prayer, petition, thanksgiving. There's never going to be a request from God. It's all understanding and prayer that best defines a Christian. That is exactly right. Whatever is good, whatever is beautiful, whatever is perfect, whatever. All of those things, because Paul, you know, that's something that we tend to not realize is that there is a, in these letters, there is a mind-body-life connection. what you put in your head is going to affect your attitude, your actions, the way you relate to people, the way you relate to yourself. It really does matter. And so this encouragement on, you know, think about the things that are good and beautiful and lovely, you know, but most of us, most of our news feeds, most of our shows are not geared that way. They're geared in the opposite way. All right. So anything else? Anybody? Anything else that you want to say you've taken away from Philippians? Not just in this study, but in your own reading of Philippians. It seems like Paul has his sights set on Christ, where he says, like, you know, I count all that stuff that I had as rubbish compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He says, so forgetting what is behind is straight toward what is ahead, to win the prize. So he wasn't finished. He was still running. That is exactly right. For me, when I think of Philippians, I think of, for me to die, to live is Christ and to die is gain. You know, I'd much rather be there with you, but if I'm going to be here, then I'm going to be engaged in some type of fruitful labor for the kingdom, and whatever that may look like. All right. So let's go ahead on 16 verses. That's a lot of verses, right? So I gave you a handout, and we'll kind of talk about them. But I just want to walk through. Maybe we'll do a couple of verses at a time. Let's look at verse 1. Somebody just look at verse 1 and read it for me, whoever wants to read it. So, what does Paul mean by rejoicing the Lord? Do you rejoice in the Lord? And if you do, how do you do it? And Paul has said this in other places in this letter, right? Rejoice in the Lord. I think I gave you some scriptures there if you look at it. He says it and gives you reasons for rejoicing. in the Lord. So if you turn to page two, you'll see Philippians 118. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. Paul rejoices in the proclamation of the gospel message. Look at 228. I am more eager to send them therefore that you may rejoice at seeing him again, that I may be less anxious. Paul encourages them to rejoice when they receive back their brother who was nearly to the point of death. Notice that Paul says rejoice. And then look at Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say to you, rejoice. And in Philippians 4.10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. So my question again stands, how do you rejoice in the Lord? What does that look like in your life? Anybody want to share an experience of that? Reciting scripture. Reciting scripture, that brings you a sense of joy. Okay, what else, where else do you rejoice in the world? I guess I must be speaking in tongues. Is there anyone who can interpret? I get it, we're all tired, we don't want, we're like our brain housing groups are like, you know, I get it. Sharing with each other so Sunday morning when we gather to worship Rejoice in the Lord when you put your child in bed Rejoice in the Lord when you are with your spouse Rejoice in the Lord when you're by your spouse's bed in a hospital, rejoicing the Lord. In everything and in every place we're rejoicing the Lord. Why is that? Because we have something that others do not have, and that is we have peace with God that surpasses all understanding. That means we have no hostility. God has no hostility toward us, and we, even though we are hostile towards Him, He's not hostile towards us, and that's a reason for rejoicing. Rejoicing in the Lord that one day all of this temptation and suffering and all these struggles and they're going to be gone. Rejoicing in the Lord that one day your little toddler that is, you know, you got to watch them that they don't need Lysol wipes. You know, one day you'll be driving and then you'll have other things that you need to be praying for. And then rejoice again when they leave your house and start their own home. and you will rejoice, right? And you will rejoice in the Lord, that you had a child and that you were able to raise that child, that you were able to teach that child the ways of the Lord, and they're out on their own, right? Rejoice in the Lord in all things. Think about Paul in 2 Corinthians, that 10th chapter, when Paul describes all the hardships that he's going through And still, think about Paul in Acts 16 when he is in the inner dungeon with Silas. And what are they doing in the middle of the night? Singing hymns, right? Singing hymns and spiritual songs. And as the Philippian jailer is getting ready to fall on his sword, Paul says, hey, stop that, man. We're all here. We're good. You're good. Stop. He's rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. So Paul tells them to rejoice in the Lord and to write the same thing to them is no trouble. Now whether Paul is talking about writing Rejoice in the Lord or whether Paul is talking about this idea of unity or the supremacy of Christ, or the whole letter, we don't know, but it's not a problem. So let me ask you this. Is it a problem for you to continue to share the gospel with people that don't know Jesus Christ? Let's be honest. One or two times, you're good. Three times, you're good. Four times, five times, 10 times. We get tired, don't we? But Paul says, to write these things again. They're believers. I guess, so for us, maybe we should think about that it is a joy. It is a joy to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, it doesn't get better than that. It really, when you stop and you think about it, we have the words of life. That's what Peter tells Jesus in John. To whom, to whom, where are we going? We have the words of life, so where are we going to go? What he's saying is every other place is death. This is it. This is life. So Paul writes and he says, do, there's no trouble for me. Now let's look at verses 2 and let's just kind of look at verse 2 there for a second. Somebody read verse 2. Let's talk about it. Look out for the Nogs, look out for the Abledoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. I just thought about it for the first one. It kind of gets lost on me that He's literally commanding you to be exceedingly glad in God. That is exactly right. Yeah, because that is what? It's an imperative. Yeah, it's commanding you to be joyful. So how joyful are we, man? Let's be honest. You know? We don't walk around with the label, people, everything is awesome. We don't do that. And we're not called to that either, because some things are really hard. But still, in everything that befalls us, there is nothing that is not ordained by God for His glory and our good. Even though we may not understand how that works in the moment, So, we go back to Job, should I not accept that from the Lord? Good, I mean, he's God. So, it is a commandment, rejoice, chayeteh, and it's a plural. He's speaking to the whole church. Y'all, all of you, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice. And Paul says again, I will rejoice. You rejoice. I rejoice. He had said that earlier. What else? Anything else in that first verse that hits you? I have something to say about that. I think when I start a Christian, I think about the Christian life where everything should look and sound right, and we're here rejoicing the Lord all the way through, and I say rejoice. And we miss the turn, and we're already late, and the kids are screaming at that. And you think, well, God, I can't have joy right now. I can't actually praise you. It's just a frustration. But that's what it is. It's learning how to rejoice in all those little areas that we can't quite, all right, God, I have no idea why this happened, and I missed a turn, and he threw up, and we're leaving, and I'm going to have to just find joy in that you, you know, you're worthy of rejoicing in, even though I don't get it. And one of the stories that I have that's been really impactful is, I try to read My Hiding Place by Carl Tendon at least once a year, Corey and her sister Betsy, they're Dutch. They get caught trying to help Jewish people by, you know, they're in the Holocaust. And I'll skip to the part about rejoicing and all the things, which is Betsy had this down pat with her sister. Corey was still not there. She's like, I don't understand why you're saying rejoice in all things, Betsy. They were covered in fleas. And she said, Cory, her sister Betsy, Cory, Cory, you've got to rejoice even in the fleas. And she's like, I won't do it. I can't do it. How can I rejoice when fleas are biting us? And later, Betsy ends up dying in this concentration camp so that they learn later After Betsy had died, that the reason why they were able to hold their Bible studies and people come to know Christ was because the guards didn't want the fleas that were covering them in that particular camp. And so they learned that, that rejoicing in fleas, even God had a plan in the flea being there. You know, and so I've always tried to hang on to that story, because I'm like, if Betsy and Corey, who are covered in fleas, can rejoice, even though they didn't even know that God was using it to save people, I can rejoice in these little mundane things. That's right. I think sometimes we base our joy in time. So we have a temporal joy, which really is no different than happiness. When we think joy, we're thinking happiness. And happiness is based off happenstance. Things happen, things don't happen. But our joy is eternal. Our joy is a person. Our joy is in Christ. So regardless of what the temporal things that are spinning around you are, your joy never leaves you. And see, and that's important, because if we're not careful, we'll fall into this prosperity mindset. Right? Like, God loves me because everything is going my way. God loves me because, you know, I've got all this money, I've got all this. God loves me and it's based upon what I've determined to be good. But then you have to step back and say, okay, does God not love the Christian who is in a country that is abusive and oppressing and killing and beheading? Does God not love them? Are they not brothers and sisters in Christ? And how is it that then the love of God can be like that? And so it is because our mindset is temporary. Our joy is in Christ, and that is why in the midst of the sorrow, in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of all of it, our joy never goes away. We don't walk into painful circumstances, and I find this offensive, and Christians do it not because we need to be offensive, but we do it because we don't know what to do with painful silence. When somebody's truly grieving, we come in there and we offer a Christian platitude, not because it's to make them feel better, but it's because we're so uncomfortable with dealing with just raw pain. And in the midst of that, that person has not lost their joy, but they are really enduring a hard thing. And that's why Paul says, rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and grieve with those who are grieving, right? But what I want you to hear from Paul is that our joy is not temporal. Our joy is eternal. And we need to have an eternal mindset. And most of us haven't really been taught how to have that, and it's a struggle for us, because everything is grounded in time. Setting your eyes on what is unseen. That is it. That is exactly right. And so what's the deal with, what's going on here with dogs, evildoers, and all of these? This is, these are three commands. The Greek term is ble, pe, te, which is beware, or see to it, something along that line. See to it, or beware of the dogs, beware of the evildoers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh. What is Paul referring to there? Are you guys familiar with the term Judaizers? The Judaizers? Yeah. They're usually in a cellar. They're usually in a cellar, yes. I hope I didn't explain it. I can't remember. He probably did it. No, not in your circle. Oh, in another circle. OK, well, shame on him if he didn't explain it. No, he did. He explained it, but I couldn't explain it either. If you look on the page, huh? follow the continued, never mind. Well, they're following the law of Moses in all these things. Salvation through a certain tradition. Right. So what you got? Like following all those, I don't want to say tenets, but that's not the word I'm looking for. They're calling them rituals. Rituals, yeah. So you have to be careful with that, right? Because when you say you follow the law of Moses, The Ten Commandments are part of the Law of Moses, and we are bound by those things, right? I mean, not toward salvation, but they are God's moral revelation of how we conduct ourselves. But it's those things that they do, though, that are like part of it. So the religious laws, right? The religious laws, and the Jews had civil laws as well. And then they had the divine commandments, the law given by God. But Judaizers, the way I think about Judaizers is pretty much, do we have Judaizers today? What would that look like today? Hair covering. Hair covering? OK. I guess it would be more very works-based. Works-based? Very legalistic. Legalistic? So if I were to write this, right? The gospel plus anything. the gospel plus anything. CRT, the gospel plus anything. Anything that is added to the work of Christ is a no-go. Judaizers were particularly a group of Christian Jews that they converted and now what they expected was for Christians to follow all the laws of Moses. And so you have an example, a good example of that in Timothy and Titus, right? So they were both uncircumcised, but Paul circumcised Timothy. Why did he circumcise Timothy? Okay. His mom was a Jew. So in order for him to not be offensive and for the gospel message not to be hindered, He circumcised him. Titus was not. Titus was a non-Jew, so there was no need for that with Titus. But did circumcision do anything for Timothy? No. Circumcision was a sign of what? Of salvation? Or what do you mean by that? Explain that. I don't know if they saw it as a sign of salvation as much as they saw it as a part of obedience. But what was it in the Old Testament? What was it in the Old Covenant? It was the sign of the covenant. It was the sign of the covenant. Okay, you're talking about Paul talks about that in Romans 11 that they have a zeal for God and but without knowledge. Talking about the Jews, right? They have a zeal for God. They follow the law. They know the law. But their intent for following the law is not pleasing to God. And they were trying to earn something from God by perfect obedience, right? Even in the wilderness, they missed it. Completely. And it gets worse, right? What happened before they take Jericho? They're in the promised land. What has to happen? They have to be circumcised. They weren't even doing it in the wilderness. And they have to put away their idols. What Judaizers were doing back then was, the gospel was not enough. And that's why Paul calls out Peter in Galatians. Peter, as long as there were no members from James or any of those Jewish converts, he was associating with the Gentiles pretty good, but when the Jewish converts come, the people, the men of James, all of a sudden he separates himself and Paul calls him out and says, hey, this is hypocrisy. It's Christ plus nothing. The problem that I had with J.D. Greer's address to the SPC maybe two years ago was, you need to embrace Black Lives Matter as a gospel issue. No, my friend, no. All lives matter. And his report was, don't tell me all lives matter. I'm having this argument over the video. Don't tell me all lives matter. And I'm like, but Jesus says all lives matter. It's an important thing that we understand, that it is the gospel alone. And Paul's going to deal with this a little bit more, because the misunderstanding with the Jews was that they could earn something from God by keeping the law perfectly. As a matter of fact, Paul is going to go through this diatribe here in a minute. And the reality is that they could never keep the law perfectly. But even, let's say, let's say you took your keep the perfect law pill this morning, right? Would you? Let's say you were, you gave it to your baby before they could volitionally send it. She gave them that special milk that kept the wall completely. Would they be justified before God? I don't know. Because we aren't saved by works, we're saved in Christ alone. How are we saved in Christ? What's imputed to us? His righteousness. Well, this one was three. No human being was justified in his sight for obedience to the law, rather through the law he had come to knowledge of sin. So the purpose of the law was to rebuke the sin of the people and to save the people. But there's also this other part of that. In heaven, we're all sin. In Adam, there was never a chance for them, through perfect obedience, to attain to the righteousness which is found in Christ. Because in Adam, that's imputed to us, that guilt. In Christ, what's imputed to us is righteousness. And the first one, we have conversations with Mormons, and a lot of times they'll consider themselves Christians. They'll get upset when you say they're not. But the problem is they'll say, you're saved by grace after all you can do. The idea is that you pursue the law, and you do all these good things, and once you reach your limit of you can do no more than God has grace for you. And then the second one, I was listening to a podcast by a prominent bishop, and he said so many good things, and the guy asked him, you know, what's the line between, like, in heaven and not in heaven? Like, how much is too much equal, how much is too much the same? He didn't actually talk about the gospel at all. He talked about God's grace in your works. And so if you strive with all you can do, God leads you to the rest. It was like the exact same gospel. But both of them would consider themselves Christians. That is exactly right. And so it's interesting that you mention that because even in Catholicism, you have venial sins and moral sins. Venial sins, you can pray your rosary, do this, whatever. Mortal sin, you have to stop over. The way of Catholicism, the grace system in Catholicism is grace is imputed to you through the various sacraments. So when you go to mass, grace is imputed to you. So it's grace on the installment plan. And I know it's a crass way to think of it. I'm not trying to offend Catholics. I was Catholic, I was raised Catholic, and all of that. But that's the way to think about it. There's this idea that you have no real assurance at the end of the day. And then you have this special place called purgatory. And one day we can talk about that a little bit more. But I want you to start thinking about this idea. Anything that is the gospel plus is works-based. If we all had to depend on our works to get into the kingdom of God, into the church, it would never happen. As you quoted in Romans 3, there's none righteous, no not one, no one does good, no one seeks after God. And when you start thinking about those things, you start getting a little bit more concern. But Paul here is warning them about the Judaizers. He's talking about them and those three phrases right there for look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. He is talking about the characters. I wrote a couple of things there for you. Dogs on page two. They were not considered clean animals at that time. There are various examples of how dogs are described in the Bible. But they were considered scavengers and unclean animals. And it was also a metaphor to refer to wicked people, people that did wicked things. And so sometimes when we start thinking about the way they view things, we need to step back. So, for instance, when I was teaching you guys about the third heaven, and I explained to you the Jewish cosmology, right, that there was the heaven between the ground and the sky, and then there was the heaven above the sky, and the planets and all that, that was that second heaven, but that third heaven is the place where God lived. That's what when Paul says, I know of a man who went to the third heaven, he is dealing, he's speaking with the cosmology of that time, their understanding of the world. He said, I know a man who was transported into the presence of God. That's what he's saying. And he says, I won't boast on these things, but that's what he's saying. So let's look a little bit here. So I want you to look at what Paul says here a little further down. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So I kind of In your handout there on page three, I kind of went through and I gave you scriptural basis on the way circumcision is kind of looked at in the scripture. And I wanted to do this because you spoke about that earlier, Jimmy. And that is in verses 28 and 29, that you are dealing with this very issue. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God. And that is important. All of us, all of us, have had our hearts circumcised by God. He changed you. He took that heart of stone from you and gave you a heart of flesh. And so that's why Paul can say here that 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. In other words, we do not put our confidence in words. I'll be honest with you. It's great. I love kids. I do. I love them. I mean, I'd love to give them back, too, but no. But I love them when they're running around like this because some of our greatest theologians were trained sitting in parlor rooms listening to the conversations of the grandparents and the parents. you don't know how much they retain it or don't retain until they get older and you start hearing things come out of their mouths. And so this is beautiful to me. All right, so let's talk a little bit about what Paul is going to go through here. If somebody will go ahead on and read verses 4 through 6. Well, 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, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal of the prosecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law of Philemon. Wow. What is Paul saying? That's exactly right. And he's also, by comparison, what he's also doing is saying, those guys that are telling you to do these things, they can't touch you. That's what he's saying. They don't even come close to achieving anything that I've achieved in junior high school. And I want you to think about that. Do we have that issue today in our churches? Opposing it like credentials? Say again? Opposing it like credentials? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Credentials, experience, lineage, pedigree. How often have you had a conversation with somebody, are you a Christian? Well, my parents founded this church. They put the bell up in the tower. That pew over there has a little plaque on it with their name on it. And I grew up in that church. You grew up in that church? I grew up in that church where every pew had a brass plate that said who had donated money for it. And the fellowship hall was named after Dr. Currie. And it was the Currie Fellowship Hall. That is, you know, I mean, I've- There's plaques all over that church. I'm not. In fact, the same glass windows have it on there. Who donated the windows? I can't believe it. It is, it is. I mean, I mean, it's just, it's true. You sit there and you open up a Bible in memory of, you know, or donated by, and you go, oh, yeah, that's in there, too. The hymnals. If anyone wants to donate a stained glass window, we do need a stained glass window. Yeah, we do need a stained glass window. We are collecting, yeah. We need to get rid of the picture of Jesus. Yeah. But even the idea of, are you a Christian? My mom was a Christian. My granddad's a Christian. And I grew up in the church. And I go to Sunday school. I taught Sunday school. I taught Awanas, Kiwanas, Zuanas, all Awanas. Whatever Awana you want to, I did it. I mean, yeah, I've read the Bible 17 times, backwards and forwards, inside out. And I'm not saying that those things are not helpful for us in our walk. But what I am saying is when you start relying on your work or what you have done and not on the righteousness that is in Christ, then you've got a problem. And it infiltrates our church as it does. And let's be honest, right? How many times have you looked at somebody, watch your fingers buddy, and you go like this? Not as bad as that guy. Bless your heart. I'm not gossiping, but bless his heart. I think that way. Don't you hate it when you're humbled? So, we went to another church to celebrate Child Meditation with some friends this past weekend. And there was this family who were after a comedian, and they were just loud, like, you know, it's a solemn time, we're doing communion, you know, we're playing music, you know, it got softly, and it was quiet, and people were praying. It was just super loud. And in my heart, I'm like, what are you doing? This is supposed to be like a solemn time where you're thinking about God and what He's done for you. And we go to a baptism service after, and the dad, he's getting baptized. And I knew the story already, but I just put a name to the face. His son had just died, and the church had reached out, and he felt his pain had been shared, and he wanted to come home to Christ. And he was getting baptized that day. And so when I saw that, I'm like, my heart was broken. Like, oh my gosh. This, you know, is my second righteousness. Like, I want you to be glad about it while we're doing communion. Try to be open. Yeah, try to be open. He's a baby Christian. He'd just come to know Christ. He doesn't know the manners that we have. I don't know. It was a humbling experience. I was sitting in my pedigree, and God was like, hey, idiot. I'm with you, Jimmy, because you sit there, right? And hoochie mama gets saved, and hoochie mama comes to church next Sunday looking like hoochie mama. And everybody goes. Look at her. I was just dressing like, oh. You ain't talking to your mama anything. You ain't? I was redeemed, right? And the next Sunday, the guy's asking me for my testimony. I look obsessed under your business, bro. He looked at me like, bro, I mean, step off me, man. You ain't taught me nothing. I'm redeemed, but I'm living like a pagan. You know, I mean, so you're right. I think we have to be careful because sometimes we do, we do become boastful in the flesh. I'm not as bad as that person, or I'm better than that person. So Paul here, I think, for me, whenever I read this section, it makes me step back and go, you know what? Check yourself. Check yourself. Because look at what Paul does here. Look at what he does after he does all of that. 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. Look at this, 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. And that, if you were to look at that, that's a chiasm. It's a particular structure in writing. But really, the emphasis there is that there is no righteousness in the law. And you can also look at that as translated, when you look at this right here, through faith in Christ Jesus, that can also be translated to faithfulness of Christ Jesus. Through the faithfulness or by the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, that is the righteousness that we have. Because if we say through faith in Christ Jesus, what does that perk up in us? And work? I believe in Jesus, but the faithfulness of Christ. Remember, you know what? They call it the covenant of works. I've never really been comfortable with that term. I've always thought of it as the covenant of obedience. And why do I say that? Because God gave Adam one commandment. And what does Christ do? when he lives on earth, he is perfectly obedient to God the Father. He fulfills the requirement of obedience for us. And because of that obedience, he becomes obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross. But notice what Paul is saying. that that is what i want that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings become like him in his death and that by any means possible i may attain to the resurrection from the dead i want to talk about verse 11 briefly and i gave you something there on verse 11 so if you turn page one you look at verse 11 i also gave you a footnote there And that's just some of the understandings of that. They used to think that what Paul was saying there was that he wasn't even sure that he was going to attain to salvation. But when you start looking at the scriptures that he's spoken of before, you start saying, that doesn't make sense. And also, what I did for you is if you look at your scriptures there, I put verse 11. I think is the way I did it for you. And then I started listing a series of scriptures that point to the assurance that Paul professes and the assurance that Paul has in what Christ is doing. But what this phrase really means at this point, now with more scholarship, is that he doesn't know how this is going to come about, is how he's going to end up in the final state. So he's talking more temporal. He's not talking his final state. And so just something to think about, because you can have people that misunderstand that verse and think, well, even Paul's not sure of his salvation. But that's not true. And you can look at the other places there where he is very sure, even within this context here. Now, let's go to verses 12 through 16. And look at what Paul is talking about. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. I want you to understand the words that are being used there is Paul is straining. He is reaching out there. For those of you that have been athletes or have competed in athletic endeavors that really require a lot of training, I'm not talking about the occasional softball putt-putt guy. I'm talking about somebody who really trains, like you're going to compete. your whole life is dedicated to this. That is the kind of, that's the implication that's being carried here. Like, I am, all of this is back, and I'm grabbing this. I'm looking at nothing but Christ. I am focused on Christ. I could care less about anything that's behind me. And all of that stuff is garbage. And actually the word that is used in this section that he talks about, I consider it dung. It's been translated dung. file this, refuse, it's just everything. What he's saying is basically this, all of that is garbage. It's garbage. Now let me ask you, do we have that attitude in ourselves? What are you holding on to from the past that you just will not let go? I know we all have something that we hold on to. We're just not letting it go. And what Paul is saying, all of it is gone. I'm reaching out with both hands, and I'm on my tippy toes, and I am trying to grab onto him who's taking hold of me. I think all of us have days where we're like that. But the majority of us, I think, function kind of in ebbs and flows. There are times when we are so away from total commitment to Christ. And then there are times when we're so on fire for Christ that we scare ourselves. We scare our spouses. You know, it's the mornings where you wake up and go, babe, we're moving to a pygmy country, and we're just going to sell everything. And your wife goes, have you prayed on that? Babe, no, but I'm getting ready to pray on it right now. We all have that. That is why, for me, comforting verses, even when we are faithless, is faithful. Because it doesn't depend on me. It doesn't depend on you. But so Paul is total commitment to Christ is what you're seeing there. If you turn to your first page there, you look at verses 12 through 16. These verses deal with the uncompromising pursuit of Christ. Let me ask you, what would it take for you to pursue Christ uncompromising in your life? And I don't need an answer unless you want to share it. But ask yourself, what would it take for me to pursue Christ without compromise? And maybe you are doing that already, I don't know. But if not, why aren't you doing that? Because that's what Paul is saying. And then the letting go of the past and taking hold of Christ. How many of you guys know how they train elephants? You ever go to the circus and you watch the elephant just kind of right there in the, just being held by like a little chain and a stake, a wooden stake? Do you guys know how to train them? So what they do is they'll take a baby elephant and they'll take a stake and they'll drive it down to the ground and they'll chain him. Baby elephant start pulling on it but can't get it out, pulling on it can't get it out. Baby elephant grows up still only a three foot stake and still the same chain but he stops pulling on it. He is held back by his conditioning. is held back by failed attempts. And what I want to get at here is this. We all fail. But I think one of the traps that we fall into is we keep remitting our failures and we forget about what lays ahead. And you cannot walk forward while you're looking backwards. When I read these verses from me, when I read them devotionally from me, it reminds me to say, yeah, you know what? Yeah, I was an enemy and a hater of God. And you know what? Sometimes even as a professing lover of God, I stumble and I fall into old patterns. But they don't hold me. In Christ, I am a conqueror. In Christ, I have been set free. In Christ, I have everything that I need and more to excel as a Christian in this life. You know, we have to learn to do a couple of things. One, to let go of the things that we value. And secondly, to break free from the things that keep holding us back. And the only way that you do that is to put your eyes on Jesus. On Jesus. And then finally, the other thing here is that Christianity is not passive, number four. You can't sit and go, I'm saved. The Holy Spirit's going to do all the work. Yeah, yeah, just like a wonder twin powers activate. You know what I mean? It's not the way it works. Yes, the Holy Spirit is working in you, but God gave you appendages, gave your mind, gave your mouth. You are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It doesn't mean you're earning salvation from God, but it means that you are moving and living the life in Christ that is commanded to all believers. Knowing that and I've had this discussion with brothers like how do I know what's a good word? And how do I know what's the work of the Spirit right and my answer is? If it's a good work, it's the work of the Spirit Because When you start asking questions like that what you're really asking is is there something that I can boast? You may not be realizing that But that's what you're asking. What is me, and what is God? We are united with Christ, and we are to live lives that are commensurate with the gospel message. And we are to live lives in community that proclaim the glory, the power, the majesty of God. And we are to repent daily. It is a gift from God. It is a gift from God. You realize that every time you mess up, you have the opportunity to repent, because God's given it to you? And you realize that sinners do not repent like that. They don't feel guilt like that. They may have fear or apprehension about the consequences of their action in time, but that's not the guilt of a Christian. When I sin, I know it. And I know who I am sinning against. I can only imagine what it must have been like for David when Nathan comes up to him and tells him this really cute story about a little lamb and the owner and all of that and this bad man who takes the lamb and slaughters it and then David says, man, that guy's gonna pay. And Nathan says, you're that guy. That's you, bro. And David, what does David say? Against God alone have I sinned. And then you take that story, that account, and you parallel it with Potiphar and Joseph, and Joseph runs away, and he says, how can I sin against God? He's been so good to me. How can I do that? He just leaves. So, any questions on what we've covered? I know that it's been more homiletic, sort of exegetical, more experiential, anecdotal, but sometimes it's good just to talk about the scriptures and to know how they impact our lives. Any questions on anything that we talked about or didn't talk about or something you want to cover? Any thoughts? Gosh, I brainwashed you guys. I am the man. My mind control is extraordinary. I was thinking about what you were saying earlier about how a lot of times we tend to look at, well at least I'm not sinning like this other person is, or I'm not doing, I'm not that awful like this person is. A lot of times there's A lot of confusion going on in that, because it's your own pride. You don't think about the fact that, OK, you're not sinning like them, but you're sinning. We're all sinning at some point. And so we forget that any amount of sin is enough to send us all to hell. And the fact that it's not of our own works that we receive salvation. And you get that kind of mindset. Like, theologically, we, you know, oh yeah, you know, like, faith is a gift and salvation, but that part, like, sometimes you just, that pride kind of builds up and it's like, yeah, I wouldn't do that, I didn't do this, I didn't forget that it was all a gift from God in the first place. It's just... So you think, you think about this story that Jesus tells about the publican and the Pharisee, right? Oh, thank God I'm not like this sinner, you know, over here, I'm a tax collector, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I was just like, mercy you, Lord, mercy me. Any other comments, thoughts? I think on the, not the case side, but a difference on that, too, is growing up in a church that really is the theme of what saves always. Oh, yeah. And one, it doesn't make you accountable for yourself, and it doesn't make you hold you accountable. And so it just becomes a latitude to stay static. You're right about that. You're OK. I'm OK. We're all OK. Let's just keep doing what we're doing. I think it was one of these guys said it. Some of you guys will know. He says it's OK to come to church and not be OK. It's not OK to stay static. If you're coming to church and you're not changing, If you're not convicted, if the word of God isn't slicing through your life, then you ought to be asking some questions, right? If your life is not different, like, Six months from now, then it is now. And you're not going to be asking some questions. And what I want you to walk with, more than anything else, is grace. What Paul is feeding you is nothing but grace and the righteousness of Christ. Nothing to do with words. It's just grace, grace, marvelous grace. Anybody want to close this out real quick? Or any other comments? It sounds like the natives are restless. You're going to say something? The final idea, so the type in the opinion of the old government was circumcision, the anti-type is regeneration, not baptism. I would say, when you look at that, because I've had this discussion before, If I were, this is John, right? So this is not, but when I look at the circumcision as a sign of being in the covenant, I kind of, in my mind, I start thinking the only thing that we're told to do in remembrance of me is the Lord's Supper. So I think partaking of the Lord's Supper, in my mind, is more equivalent to old-time circumcision. Because the circumcision, if you read in Colossians, what is the circumcision that Jesus put off? It was his body. the body of sin, that was the circumcision, right? But in the old covenant, circumcision was a sign of being a member of the covenant. But even with that, and even realizing that in the 40 years of wandering, the Jews weren't circumcised, and the faithfulness of God to deliver them into the land in spite of their lack of faithfulness. When you start reading that, you start realizing, OK, it's not because of your righteousness in Deuteronomy. It's not because of your righteousness that you're going into the land. It's because of his faithfulness to the promises he gave God. So think about this. If Christ based or your salvation was based on your faithfulness today, or your faithfulness in the past six months. How'd you be doing? Thumbs down, right? So it's all this idea of understanding to trust in God. At the end of the day, trust and obey, there is no other way. Any other questions or thoughts?