Book of Philippians - Ch. 3, Vs. 1-21 (08/25/2019)

We didn't get started, huh? We're, yeah. And this may be, we may be a small crowd today.

Both sets. And everybody associated with the

Mitchell, except Ben. Well, we especially appreciate

Ben and Ash. And their children, too.

Okay, we will just go ahead and begin, and as people float in, they can come.

We will be in Philippians chapter three, which is just about midway through the letter.

I actually went back and counted. Just a shade more than midway. I did that because of how he begins this chapter.

Before we begin, let's pray. Most gracious heavenly father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all the many blessings that you have given us.

Thank you for giving us this place that we may come together and study your holy word. Thank you for giving us your son, who came and died for us, to allow us to share in his glory and for him to take on the responsibility for our sin.

Bless us and keep us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the

Lord to write the same things to you. To me is indeed not grievous, but for you it is safe.

And I thought it was so funny that the very first thing that he said was finally, and he's just barely midway through.

This finally is not the end of the letter.

It's kind of like a lot of pastor's sermons. When they say finally, it just means catch your breath.

What it means here is a transition. He is going to redo a lesson that he has taught in the first two verses, and then he's going to move on to something more.

So it's a transition more than anything else. And then he says, rejoice in the

Lord. Now the whole theme of Philippians is rejoice. But this is the first time that he adds the phrase in the

Lord. So here's the first time in the letter that he says rejoice in the

Lord, which signifies the sphere in which the believer's joy can exist.

If you're not in the Lord, you can't have joy. A sphere that is unrelated to the circumstances of your life, but it's related to an unassailable, unchanging relationship to the sovereign

Lord. And then he says something that's awkward for me. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

Now what's he trying to say there? He's going to reteach.

I do that all the time in my classes. I teach something and then I reteach it.

And I explain to them the reason I'm reteaching it is not because I thought they're stupid and couldn't understand it, but because every time we go over something, it ingrains it more into our memory, into the chemicals that make up the network in our brain so that we will recall it better the next time.

And we'll recall it quicker. Part of memory is repeating over and over.

Paul is very good at that. And that's what he's doing here. He's about to reteach them in the following verses something he had already taught.

Now I'm gonna go back to Philippians 1, 27 and pick up what he has already taught.

And then we're gonna talk about what is it that he is teaching in this passage and in the one to come.

So here we go. First Philippians 1, 27, only let your conversation,

I'm gonna stop there a second and just say conversation is your lifestyle, not what you're talking about.

But when they use conversation, it talks about your lifestyle, not what we think of as a conversation.

Let your lifestyle be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel and in nothing be terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God.

And then he goes on to say, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

So that's the previous passage dealing with what this passage is going to reteach.

So what is it that he's teaching us? What did he teach us in the previous passage that is so significant that he wants to redo it?

To be upstanding in his... That's a big part of it.

Live the life of striving together for the faith of the gospel.

I didn't get that right. Let your lifestyle be as becometh the gospel of Christ.

And it doesn't matter whether I come to see you or not, whether I'm watching over you or not, live the lifestyle that the gospel demands you to live.

But it also says something else, something that's very important to people who are undergoing stress.

And what it's saying is, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but to suffer for his sake.

Some of the suffering that we have comes from the direct result of our carelessness.

I've got a thing on my thumb that is there because I shut the door on it.

And the Lord says, if you shut the door on your thumb, it will have a black spot on it. So if you see the black spot, it's not dirty fingernails, it's the result of carelessness.

That was a suffering that I experienced because of something that I did that was wrong, careless.

Sometimes we suffer because of carelessness. But we don't, not all of our suffering is for that.

Some of our suffering is given to us by God. On purpose, and we talked about that last week,

I believe. I was partially asleep last week, I apologize to you. Grace, an unmerited favor of suffering.

God's grace, God gives us by his grace suffering.

Now, how would he do that? Why would God give you,

John, and I know you're having a lot of suffering now, I don't think it was anything you did.

Sure, but if I had been right, but in the same respect,

I mean, like Ron said, everything glorifies God. God suffered more than we can understand.

He died for us, he suffered for us, he bore our sins for us, he was exchanged from God for us.

We, in our role as Christians, our part is to be conformed to be like him.

And part of being conformed to being like him is to go through some of the things that he went through and let other people see the way we deal with it.

And I think that's the, and that's the reason I brought you up. I am just so, I am just so blessed every time

I see you and I know you're suffering and I see the happiness that's in you.

Well, and you know, also, I was gonna add this, I also, I have a responsibility in him.

What? He's in control. Yeah. And it's all for a reason. So, you know.

And we don't have to know the reason. All we have to know is sometimes our suffering is a token of our salvation.

Remember this verse, and in nothing be terrified by your adversaries, your enemies, the things that they do, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, the suffering that you undergo for Christ is a token of your salvation.

That's what he's teaching us. That's what we will reteach in the verses to come.

And then he's got this thing right at the end. And that's kind of awkward too.

What he's saying here in, to write the same things to you, to me, is indeed not grievous.

It's not hard for me to redo this. It's not hard for me to rewrite it, to tell you again, but to you, it is safe.

What does he mean by that? It's beneficial to you.

More than it won't harm you, it is beneficial to you. It's a safeguard to protect you from succumbing to false teachers.

Now, he deals with false teachers in all of his writings. One of his great issues is the presence of false teaching in his church, his church, the churches that he founded.

Not his church at all, is it? Any more than Park Meadows is our church. Shouldn't be our church.

It's a church that we attend. It's a gathering that we're part of, but it's

God's church. It should be. Verse two, beware of dogs.

Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Well, dogs were pretty bad back in the day.

It's not like the little pets that you have, Ron, escorting out that are under voice command all the time.

It's not that kind of a dog. This dog was a scavenger. They would wander the streets terrorizing.

Filthy. Because the dogs were such filthy creatures, the

Jews loved referring to the Gentiles as dogs. In fact, they didn't call them

Gentiles, they called them dogs. Well, is Paul saying beware of the

Gentiles? No, he's saying beware of the Judaizers. Beware of the

Jewish false teachers because of their sinful, vicious, uncontrolled character.

For we are the circumcision which worships God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

So circumcision was a symbol of being a Jew. And he is looking, Paul is looking at the congregation and he's saying, we bear the sign of Christ.

Like the Jews bear the sign of being a Jew, we bear the sign of being

Christ. What do we do? We worship

God in the spirit and we rejoice in Jesus Christ. And we have no confidence in the flesh or in any markers on the flesh.

The Gentiles who sometimes would mutilate themselves as part of their worship ceremony, that was of no value either.

It's not what you do to your body. The true people of God do not possess merely a symbol of the need for a clean heart.

They possess a clean heart. We rejoice because we have been cleansed of sin by God.

And therefore we have a clean heart. There are those that say, well, the Lord doesn't repair our heart, he just replaces it.

I have no argument with that. So I will give you a new heart and they make a lot of deal about that.

To me, it doesn't matter. What matters is whether the Lord fixes it or whether the

Lord gives me a new one, I've got one that's clean. Not because of what I can do or what

I've done, but because he gave me a clean heart. And he doesn't let anything bad come into that heart because if it starts to, he takes the responsibility for it.

He cleanses me and he keeps my heart pure. And he keeps your heart pure as well.

As long as we're in Christ Jesus. The true Christian gives all the credit for all that he is to Christ.

That was Miss Joy and I'm not gonna respond to her. She's just apologizing for not being here.

And I didn't want to actually even refer to that, but it kept being.

We do miss her. I have no confidence in the flesh.

Paul is referring to man's unredeemed humanism. He has no ability nor any achievements apart from God.

Now he's gonna go on and say something that you might think is a little bit prideful.

So let's just read it and see. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof, he might trust in the flesh,

I more. He's looking around and he is saying to the Judaizers and to all of his congregation, if you think you have lived good enough by the flesh, following the law, if anybody thinks that they can get to Christ that way, you need to understand that I've got more of that than you do.

And then he's gonna go on and talk about what it means to him. To counteract the

Judaizers' claim that certain ceremonies and rituals of Judaism were necessary for salvation.

If any man thinketh that he might trust in the flesh. If you need to be circumcised, no.

The rituals of Judaism, no. Paul will describe his own attainment as a

Jew, which were greater than those of his opponents could claim.

But even though they were accomplishments, they were of no benefit for salvation.

All the things that Paul did as a Jew, and he did many things, some good, some not so good.

But one thing we know about them, they were of no benefit for salvation. Does that mean that they were of no benefit?

Is it a benefit that we follow the law? But it's not a benefit towards salvation.

It does not mean there are no benefits at all. It just means that salvation is not one of the benefits. Here he goes.

I, circumcised on the eighth day, just exactly the day you're supposed to be circumcised. Do you know why they circumcised on the eighth day?

Anybody know? And the question

I'm gonna ask next is, how did they know this? The baby's body chemistry changes.

And on the eighth day, bleeding is less of an issue.

They bleed less if they're cut on the eighth day than on any other day. See, how did they know that?

They didn't. God just told them, do it on this day and things will work out better than if you do it on another day.

Circumcised on the eighth day. Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, he knew who his tribe was, a

Hebrew of Hebrews. As to touching the law, I was a Pharisee.

Concerning zeal, this was not a good thing. Persecuting the church.

Touching the righteousness, which is of the law, blameless. Remember the rich young ruler that said, all these things

I have done from my youth? Paul had done those things from his youth. I'm not sure about the rich young ruler.

But here is his assessment of it. But what things were gain to me,

I count loss for Christ. The word gain is an accounting term, which means profit.

And loss is also an accounting term, which describes a business loss.

Paul is using the language of business to describe the spiritual transaction that occurred when

Christ redeemed him. Though all of his Jewish credentials that he thought were in his profit column, were actually in his loss column.

They were worthless and they were damning. Look at what Luke says. This is

Luke 18, starting at verse nine. And he spake this parable, unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

These would be the Pharisees. Two men went up to the temple to pray. Now he's telling this to the

Pharisees. And he said, two men went up to the temple to pray.

One a Pharisee and the other a publican, the other one a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

He sees the tax collector over there and he singles him out and he says, Lord, I am just so glad that I am not like that one.

I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

He is very proud of the fact that the things that he's required to do, he's doing them. Now the publican knows he's not doing those things.

And the publican standing afar off, not even close to the

Pharisee, would not lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying,

God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Now that's the story.

Now what did Jesus tell the certain that he's talking to the group of Pharisees about the meaning of the story?

Well, he doesn't tell them anything. As Brother David said, he asked them a question. No, he doesn't, he does tell them.

I tell you this, man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.

Now, what did he say? The publican went to his house justified, just as if he had never sinned, rather than the other one who followed the law.

For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Thus, Paul put his things that were, what he originally thought were in his profit column, he put in his loss column when he saw the glories of God.

He says, oh, all of these things that I thought I was doing that was so good is of nothing. Matthew says this, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.

For what is a man profiteth if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his

Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

So there's a reason for man doing works.

He'll be rewarded for it. He's commanded to do it.

For we have been given grace. We have been given justification.

We have been given the opportunity and the responsibility to conform ourselves more and more to Christ.

And if we do that, we'll be rewarded for that. And if it takes a little suffering and a little pain or a lot of suffering and a lot of pain, it'll all be put in the profit column rather than the loss column.

So Paul goes on to say, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my

Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but none that I may win

Christ. Here's what he's saying. All that I may have lost by following Christ.

And you lose things if you follow Christ. All the things that I may have lost by following Christ has no value when compared to that which

I have gained. I need to probably stop and remind you. Where was Paul when he was writing this letter?

He was in prison in Rome, not sure whether he would be alive or dead the next day.

The decision is coming down from Caesar. And the next day he might be dead.

He has certainly lost his freedom. He is chained to a Roman soldier in a house temporarily.

And that turns out to be about two years. But he has lost a lot.

And he says, all that I may have lost by following Christ has no value when compared to what

I have gained. And be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law.

I'm not righteous because I followed the law because I couldn't follow the law. But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

So here's the story. No matter how well we keep the law, we're human.

And we make mistakes. So being righteous, so being judged righteous requires more than we can deliver.

We can't deliver a righteous life no matter how hard we try. Paul couldn't, I can't, you can't.

Only one could. The one that could was Jesus. Therefore, we can only rely on the gift to us of righteousness by Christ.

I've referred to this a couple of times already. I'm just gonna read it. Ephesians 2 .8, for by grace are you saved through faith.

And that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. However, being given

Christ's righteousness, we're also given the Holy Spirit to enable us to follow the law more faithfully.

And if you go on down to verse 18 of Ephesians 2, it will say, for through him, we both have access by one spirit to the

Father. Through what's the him? The him here is the

Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, we have access by one spirit, the Holy Spirit to the

Father. Allowing us to be better conformed to Christ. Romans 12 .1

says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, and of course, this is still

Paul writing in Romans as well, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto

God, which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Back to Philippians, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death.

The fellowship of his suffering. Suffering like Jesus.

Suffering like Paul. Suffering like many of us suffer.

Some more than others. And of course, we all want as little of that as we can possibly have.

One purpose for suffering in this world is to help us be more like Christ. It refers to a pardon -ish -up, a deep communion of suffering that every believer shares with Christ, who is able to comfort suffering

Christians because he has already experienced the same suffering and infinitely more.

Christ died in his suffering for the purpose of redeeming sinners.

So Paul had the same purpose, but to a lesser extent. Paul is willing to die for the purpose of redeeming or helping to redeem sinners.

He lived and would willingly die to reach sinners with the gospel.

And it's the gospel that will save them. His life and death, though not redemptive, were for the same purpose as the

Lord's. The Lord's death was for redemption. Paul's death was to inform people about Jesus' death.

And our suffering should be the same way. Verse 11, if by any means

I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after.

If that I may apprehend, that for which I am also, that for which also

I am apprehended of Christ. Christ chose

Paul for the ultimate purpose of conforming Paul to his image.

He chose you for the same reason. He chose you for the ultimate purpose of conforming you to his image.

Here's what Paul says in Romans. For whom he did foreknow, who he knew, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his

Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brethren.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them also he called.

And whom he called, them also he justified. And whom he justified, them also he glorified.

And that's the goal that Paul is pursuing, to be conformed to Christ.

Chosen, he had nothing to do with that. Called, he had nothing to do with that.

Glorified, justified, he had nothing to do with that. Conformed, well, yes, he's got something to do with being conformed.

Glorified, Paul had nothing to do with that. And here's the thing.

If you're chosen, you don't just get chosen. You get all five.

You get called, justified, conformed, and glorified. And the only one that you have any input at all is in being, and so how do you become conformed?

By pressing on. Reaching forth unto those things which are before, as Paul did.

I'll read it again. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing

I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.

I press toward the mark. That's the only thing left for Paul to do after his salvation.

That's the only thing left for us to do after our salvation. That's the only thing we ever had to do is press on toward the mark.

Everything else was perfectly completed by God at the instant of salvation.

Brother David always talks about the 30 things that were done at the very instant of the salvation. All 30 of them were done right then, and there's only one that stretches out through time that was not done at that, and that is the pressing on that we do toward the mark and becoming conformed like Christ.

That takes some time, and it fits so well in with the lesson that he is doing that yes, there's work to be done.

There's work for you to do, but that work for you to do is not work for you to do to get your salvation.

You've already got that. You've got all the things then. You've even got the glorification then.

It's in the bank for you. The Lord is not gonna lose a one.

If he chose you, you'll be there at the end to be glorified. He may have to beat on you a little bit on the way.

He may have to beat on you, John, a little bit to make me see that I need to press on to the mark.

Everything else was perfectly completed by God at the instant of salvation.

Chosen and called by God the Father and probably by the

Son as well. When? Before time began. Justified by Christ, by his death and resurrection.

Conformed by the Holy Spirit and by you. As you're following the example of Jesus and to a lesser degree to the example of Paul.

As you press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And then finally glorified. When you give up your resurrection body at the rapture or when you get your resurrection body just a bit before the rapture.

Because those that are dead will go up first. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded.

And if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Those who press on will make continual progress toward the goal of becoming

Christ -like. Those who continue to dwell on the past will make no progress toward that goal.

Nevertheless, where to we have already attained let us walk by the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing. Now a better translation would be to the degree already attained let us walk.

Let us walk to the degree that we have already attained. And as you attain more, you'll walk better.

As you are more and more conformed to be like Christ, walk that way and then press on toward a closer resemblance or confirmation to Christ because we'll never be totally like Christ, not even in heaven.

But we'll be closer and closer. Paul's directive to the

Philippian believer was to stay in line spiritually and keep progressing in sanctification by the same principles that had brought them to this point.

In Thessalonians, he says this. Day and night pray exceedingly that we might see your face, that we might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.

And Peter said, as a newborn babe desires sincere milk of the world that ye may, of the word, that ye may grow thereby.

Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.

Since all believers are imperfect, they need examples of men that are less imperfect than they are.

In some ways, Christ is too perfect for it to be an example for us. We will say, if we see

Christ's life, we will say, he is perfect, I can't possibly be that, and we'll shut down.

But we look at Paul and we see a man that struggles in the same way that we do, a man less than perfect.

They need examples of less imperfect people than they are.

I need an example of somebody that's not perfect but's more closer to perfect than I am.

And that's what we all need. So we can model the process of pursuing the goal that Christ, of Christ's likeness.

And Paul is that model to us all. And we are that model to each other.

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now I tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross, not everybody that claims to be a

Christian is, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things.

For our conversation, our lifestyle, our life is in heaven, from whence also we look for the

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven, though just now we're residents of this world.

And as a result, we will need to be redesigned and adapted to heaven. How do we get that?

By conforming to Jesus Christ. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.

To subdue means to subject or to arrange things in order, managing something.

God has the power to both create natural laws and to overrule them.

That's because he's God. He created this world, he created it with a set of rules, but he has the ability to override those rules.

Well, that was verse 21. That was the last verse in this chapter, and that's where we'll end. Anybody got a comment or questions?

I can certainly accept all the comments, and I may even be able to answer a question or two, but maybe not.

But to me, that's always what that meant, and I understood that, but right now, it's a continual draw.

We would pull back. And we couldn't press on. That's for sure. We couldn't press on if he hadn't called us.

Would you read that again? Out of John? The one in John. John? So we can come to the

Lord, we can press on toward the Lord only because he is pulling us that way. It's a continual pull.

It's a continual pull. Yes, indeed. We got to work toward it.

No, no, no, you got to work toward it. But it's gonna happen because he's drawing you.

He's gonna make you work toward it, and if you're not working toward it, he is gonna put irritants in your path to make you work toward it.

Well, to me, to me, it means more.

That's why, if you remember when we, a long time ago, we divided the stages, or I divided the stages of salvation into five rather than four steps, and one of the ones

I slipped in was confirmation. Sanctification just means being set apart. And that part, and that part, yeah, and that part, he did.

But there's that progressive sanctification, that's the conforming part. So that is, there is a progressive sanctification.

I just didn't, I didn't know that word, John. I forgot it. No, you used the word sanctification a few minutes ago.

You did say that, that word, but when you were talking about conforming.

Yeah, there is a setting apart, and there's a setting apart. You are set apart because he chose you.

That was the setting apart. And he set you apart to do something, and the doing something is to press on to becoming more and more

Christlike. That's being conformed more to Christ. I like that, I like that word better than sanctification because it tells me more what it is that I'm to do, is to conform more and more to like Christ, to be like Christ.

That's what I think suffering is all about. Well, I don't,

I say all about. I think sometimes suffering is because you hit your thumb with a hammer. But.

Well. I understand that too, and I will admit,

I said something ugly. Whether I said it out loud or not doesn't matter.

And this is just a barely small hit with the door.

Anything else? Please. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all of the many blessings that you have given us.

Go forth today, the rest of the day, and keep us close to you, and follow

Ron, and give him protection and guidance as he takes us through the rest of the service. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.