Read The Fine Print

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

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For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. These are the words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ from Matthew chapter 11. And with these words, let us begin our worship. If you would turn in your hymnals or look on the website for the lyrics, which link you have, for number 80,

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How Firm a Foundation, as our brother John Burchett leads us in our first song. How Firm a Foundation. I'm glad I got it off.

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Foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent

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Word. What more can he say than to you he hath said, you who are to be, to whom

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Jesus hath fled. Fear not, I am with thee,

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O be not dismayed, I, I am thy

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God, and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.

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When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of foe shall not be overthrown, for I will be with thee,

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O true Christ, and through thy supply, the flame shall not burn, thee

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I love, thee be strong. Thy draughts to consume, and thy gold to refine, being down to old age, all my people shall prove, my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love, and when o 'er the earth shall temples adorn, like lambs they shall still in my bosom be born.

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A soul that on Jesus thy people repose,

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I will desert to his foes, that sorrow or hell should endeavor to shake,

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I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

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Amen. As we prepare ourselves to pray,

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I would acknowledge that tomorrow, Lord willing, is a day that we in this country celebrate as Memorial Day.

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But we stop and remember and think of the military members who gave their lives for the freedoms that we are here, even in this place, even this morning, enjoying.

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And as I considered this and pondered it, thinking of men who gave their lives, it put me in mind, actually, of the history of King David, as we have towards the end of his reign.

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In 2 Samuel chapter 23, which I won't read, it has the long list of the heroes of Israel, the mighty men of David, and how they were ranked and the great deeds that they had done.

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It's interesting to me that the very next chapter has David counting the fighting men.

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And again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them. He said, go and number

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Israel and Judah. Just after this long list of the brave, valiant, brave men who gave their lives for their king, the king goes and counts how many brave men he has, not trusting

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God's supply, it would seem. It's interesting how the two chapters fit together. We live in a nation, we have great freedoms in God's providence that give us this freedom to worship in this place, to come together and worship the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate one who gave his life for freedom. Not freedom simply from tyranny of men, as it was in World War II, and all those brave people who gave their lives.

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We will remember them, especially in this country tomorrow. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the only innocent man who gave his life so we could have freedom from slavery to sin.

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The Lord Jesus Christ, who we this day worship, whose name we extol, who we remember as we sing the hymns, and in whose name we go this moment to in prayer.

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So let's bow and pray together. Our Heavenly Father, giving you all the thanks and praise and glory for bringing us together, for allowing us to be here in this place.

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We come together as your people in grateful adoration of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us,

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Father. By the cross he has won our salvation, by his resurrection he has assured ours, and in his grace and his providence and sovereignty has brought us together as a church to again worship and adore him in song and prayer and proclamation of the word.

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We do pray, Father, your attendance with us once again. We are meeting in a parking lot of all places, and we give you thanks for that.

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We are meeting in odd circumstances, but we are meeting. So, Father, we are grateful to you to be together.

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We give you all the thanks and the praise and the glory for it. We pray, Lord, that you would, as we gather around Christ Jesus and what he has done for us, as we gather with our scriptures open and our spirits ready to hear you and your word.

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We pray your blessing upon us. We pray your blessing upon this place. We pray, Father, that all things would be done in a decent, orderly manner that is right with your word.

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And then, Father, as we encounter you this day, that you would change us and make us more and more like your

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Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Please turn next to a familiar hymn, as John once again leads us.

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Number 81 is A Mighty Fortress, a great hymn of the faith. A mighty fortress is our

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God. A mighty fortress is our

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God, a power never failing.

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But still our ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe.

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His craft and power are great, and on earth we will hate.

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On earth we will hate. He is not his equal. If we in our own strength had fought,

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Our standing would be losing. You're not the right man on our side,

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The man of God's own choosing. But fast through them may be,

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Christ Jesus, it is He. Lord, sell by what

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His name, The means to make us free.

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And He must win the heart of all.

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And all His brethren, And His friends, Should bow to Him and do us.

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We will not fear, Though His truth be trying to us.

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The Prince of darkness, Him, Reach among our core,

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Him. His praise we can endure, For now is to be sure.

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And we'll tell the children Of good above and sinner above.

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The Spirit and the gifts are ours,

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Through Him, through me. Let God's end king break o 'er,

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His mortal life also, Nobody may make clear

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God's truth abided still. His kingdom come.

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Before we begin, I have failed to remember in the previous announcements to give congratulations to the

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Hardin's daughter, Laura Hardin, who yesterday graduated from Ohlone College with not just one, but two

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Associates of Art degrees, so we congratulate her and her parents for God's blessing her in that success and wish her success as she goes on to put to use what she has gained in that education.

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So, God bless her and her endeavors. We turn this morning to the book of Philippians, chapter 3.

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This morning we will put our attention on the first 11 verses of that chapter. Philippians 3, 1 -11.

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Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

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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

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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.

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If anyone 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

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Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

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For whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value or worth of knowing

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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

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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.

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The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible,

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I may attain the resurrection from the dead. God bless the reading and the hearing now of this word.

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You know, most of us have seen those scenes on the news where a COVID survivor is released from the hospital.

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Have you seen that? As he's wheeled down the aisle of the hospital in a wheelchair, whether you can walk or not when you leave a hospital, it's required that you do it in a wheelchair.

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And he's leaving the hospital. He's being pushed down this aisle. He might have been there in the hospital for days, maybe even weeks.

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He's been lying in bed. He's been intubated, which is the insertion of a breathing tube.

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And we've seen these scenes where they intubate. They put the breathing tube down their throat and they're unconscious the whole time.

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Of course, you can't be conscious with that thing stuffed down your throat. And their air comes from a ventilator, which is fed to them through that tube.

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And their nutrition comes intravenously, being fed again through tubes. They have medical professionals the whole time monitoring them and taking care of them and watching all their signs.

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And without this level of care, we know that COVID would most likely be a death sentence.

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So there they are being wheeled down the hospital and they're flanked. Have you seen these scenes? Flanked on both sides by the medical professionals who had cared for them all this time.

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And there's applause and there are cheers. And the man is going down and he's got his hands over his head and he's shaking them in congratulations.

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And it's just a wonderful, touching, beautiful scene. Have we seen that? Now, I want you to put that scene in your mind and imagine that when he gets to the exit and he's finally able to get up out of his wheelchair, before he takes that step out the exit of the hospital and to his freedom and to,

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Lord willing, his health, he would turn and he would say to all those professionals who had put their lives on the line to care for him and gave all their medical skills and all their technical abilities to bring him to health.

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And there he is. And he turns to them and he says, I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for the assistance you gave me as I recovered from this awful disease.

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The way you added your skills to my own efforts was amazing. Thank you all for coming alongside me and thank you all for helping me to complete what

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I couldn't quite finish myself. Now, one nurse hearing that might say to the other nurse, say, wasn't he unconscious for the last two weeks?

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Well, yes, he was. And didn't he breathe only because a ventilator fed him oxygen through a tube in his throat?

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Yes, that too. And didn't all his nutrition come to him through an IV which we replenished?

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Nothing could be truer. Yes, that's true too. And he was unconscious the whole time as we cared for him, right?

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Right. So what does he mean that we assisted him? He had nothing at all to do with it, right?

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And the fellow nurse or medical professional would say, right. Why do

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I bring this up? Why do I draw this obviously farcical and fictional picture?

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Because no one would actually do that. I bring this picture to mind because we've seen those scenes and also because of what the

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Apostle Paul says here in Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 through 11. The warning that he gives to that church in Philippi.

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The danger that we faced, that they faced then, that we face today of taking credit, not for a recovery from COVID -19, but for a recovery from the consequences of sin.

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For, if I can say it this way, our redemption. For our salvation. Thinking that we added something to it and even now could add something to what

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Christ Jesus and he alone by the cross and by the cross alone has done.

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The church in Philippi was being influenced by men we call Judaizers. They wanted the

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Philippians to accept an ancient rite, one that had passed away with the coming of Christ and that's circumcision, of course.

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What the Apostle Paul warns the church in Philippi, what he warns us today, is that to submit to this rite, to submit to a mark in the flesh, to make any progress towards God, to add anything at all to what

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Christ Jesus has done, negates your entrance into all of that.

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It is that serious. It is that severe. What they were selling, what the Judaizers were selling, of course, was circumcision.

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They were persuading this church, they were persuading them that it was necessary to be circumcised to enter into the law of Moses and enter into inclusion in the family of God through the rite given to Abraham in order to be saved.

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Now, we call them Judaizers. That term is not in your Bibles. It's a man -made term, but it fits.

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They taught that the law in its entirety stood as a way to God.

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That the Jewish law, with all its derivative obligations, was necessary for salvation. That you needed to add some works on your part in order to gain what

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Jesus Christ and he alone procured. I brought that image of the

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COVID -19 patient congratulating himself the way he did for what he did to recover himself, and they having added something to it, but just adding to it, because that's the picture that we have here of what it means to enter into any physical act, any work of the flesh, as the

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Apostle Paul calls it, in order to have, in order to gain, in order to procure, in order to keep and maintain and progress in what

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God and God alone has done through Christ and he alone. This is a warning to us as we look at these verses.

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It's a warning to us. Circumcision is more than just a cutting away of physical thing. It's an adding to.

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It adds your works, by which we mean your efforts to bring about what only comes by faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. What the Judaizers, these dogs, these evil doers, these mutilators, what they didn't say, but what

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I can tell you from Scripture is this. Circumcision represents anything you might try to do to substitute for what

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Jesus Christ has done. Anything you might add, whether it be what you have by birth, by intellect, by social status, financially, anything like that.

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Anything that you think is your own self -worth that you are going to bring to the party and put on the plate and add to what

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Jesus Christ has done. This COVID patient that I drew thanked the nurses and everyone for their assistance.

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This would be you, the other way, assisting Christ Jesus just ever so little bit, but any at all is unacceptable.

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This is the warning Paul gives the Philippians. This is the warning I give you this day. We need to examine ourselves and see what do

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I think I'm putting on the table to add to what Jesus Christ has done. In what of me do

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I take pride and think I need in order to gain what Jesus Christ by faith and by grace alone gives us.

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As much as you rely on yourself for what God has done in Christ to save sinners like yourself, so much have you overvalued yourself and correspondingly undervalued

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Jesus. And you are in danger of assimilating what circumcision for them would only have begun.

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Self rather than Christ's confidence. So let's talk about this process, this circumcision.

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We're not going to go into a lot of detail on what it is. It's a very long history through the Bible, so it's going to be barely a thumbnail sketch, but we need to understand it here to understand

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Philippians chapter 3. Who are these Judaizers? We actually first encountered them way back in Acts chapter 14.

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In Acts chapter 14, these men of the Pharisee sect, men at the church there, probably converted

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Jews, but they're Pharisees, and they claim as members of that church that you must be circumcised according to the law of Moses.

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And this causes quite a stir. You can read that for your homework later in Acts chapter 14. But in Acts chapter 15,

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Paul and Barnabas, having been sent by the church in Antioch, go to the elders and the apostles in Jerusalem and try to sort this thing out.

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In Acts chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas going there and bringing the case. Now again, we're not going to go into a lot of detail about it, but we have

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Paul, the apostle, who has seen how the Holy Spirit worked in Gentiles, and he gives that testimony.

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And I will read to you only what Peter, the apostle Peter, said in order to support Paul and Barnabas.

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Peter puts it this way, in agreement with Paul and Barnabas, that circumcision cannot be necessary for salvation.

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Peter says this, Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

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But we believe that we will be saved through the grace, excuse me, saved through the grace of our

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Lord Jesus just as they will. Now that statement by itself seems to have had a great effect on Paul.

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We know Paul influenced Peter quite a lot in his writings, but this one seems to have worked the other way. Peter on Paul.

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When Paul ran into the circumcision bearing Judaizers in Galatia, and you read about them throughout that letter to the

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Galatians, Peter, or excuse me, Paul wished that they could be accursed.

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He wished that they would emasculate themselves, which is a wonderful play on words. And now in Philippians chapter 3 verse 2, running into these same men again, these

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Judaizers, these circumcision bearing salesmen, in this rush of participles that we had in chapter 3 verse 2, he warns the

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Philippians to look out for, which is to beware, to be on your guard against, beware of the dogs, dogs thought by Jews of that time to be worse than pigs, really, to beware of the evildoers, driving men away from simple faith and back to the slavery of self -made righteousness.

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Beware of those who mutilate the flesh, which is an interesting term for a

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Jew, for a man raised as a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebraism, we'll come to that later, to call that great sign of inclusion in the covenant a mutilation.

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But beware of those who mutilate the flesh by this painful operation that's going to bring even greater travail to the soul than it does to the body.

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Look again, if you would, at verses 1 through 3. Let me read those again. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the

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Lord, to write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it is safe for you.

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Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh, for we are the real circumcision, who worship by the

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Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. You see, brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ Jesus, if you are

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His by faith, then Christ has made you everything that circumcision ever was.

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We are the circumcision. Does that mean that we are the ones with the physical mark upon us that brings us into that sign of the covenant with Abraham way back in Genesis 17?

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No, that is not what it means. It means that we, by faith in Christ Jesus and what

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He did on the cross, we are everything that circumcision pointed towards.

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We could even say everything that circumcision was meant to prophesy. Inclusion in the family of God by faith, not by the mark, but by faith.

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Paul says here, we are the real circumcision, we are the ones intended for it.

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We live by faith in Christ Jesus as what the circumcision by the works of the flesh could only point towards, could only predict.

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It was given to Abraham as that sign assuring him that God would surely make him a great nation.

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And then 430 years later, it was given to Israel from Sinai, it was given to Israel as a sign that they were the nation that the

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Lord had promised to Abraham. So what does circumcision signify?

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Well, signified inclusion. What does Paul, the expert in the law, say of it?

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He says to the Galatians and the Romans and the letters with those names, that you are Abraham's true child.

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True child by what? By circumcision? Well no, if you go back to Acts 17,

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Abraham's son Ishmael was certainly circumcised, but if you read through, he had nothing at all to do with the promise.

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By birth into the nation? No, that couldn't be. The ten tribes who were in the north that we call

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Israel, while the two tribes we call Judah were in the south, God rejected them totally.

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By law keeping? No. Romans 4 makes clear, Philippians 3 rests on the same point, that God's reckoning of you as righteous is by faith.

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Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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430 years before the law. 430 years before the law,

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Abraham believed and that was righteousness to God. You see, all that circumcision promised, primarily inclusion in God's kingdom, all that it promised, you have now as a current possession in Christ Jesus, we are the real circumcision.

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The real circumcision is to rest in the certainty that He, that God accomplished everything in Him, Christ Jesus, His Son.

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Circumcision is a setting apart, it is a sign of being set apart to God. He has, by faith, circumcised you from the world in that sense.

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He has set you apart, which is what circumcision always meant. And more than that, in Deuteronomy 10, 16, when the law was being given in Deuteronomy 30, chapter 30, verse 6, and also the prophet

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Jeremiah, chapter 4, verse 4, and other places we could cite, the whole point of circumcision then, was that you circumcise your heart.

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And how do you circumcise your heart? Especially back then, when they had no medical technology that would give entrance to the heart, physically.

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Well, it was a picture. It was a way of saying, circumcise your heart, set your heart apart to the

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Lord, your God, for you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, circumcise your heart, set your person aside to God.

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Set yourself separate from all else and give it over to God. That's what circumcision was always meant to give or to bring.

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And this is what you have in Christ. This is what you have today in Christ Jesus. And as we find ourselves falling back on our own works and the things we do by ourselves that make ourselves righteous, things that we, even so quietly, and not revealing them to others, but in the recesses of our own mind, take some pride in.

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They fail to recognize that what you have in Christ is the real circumcision, the real setting apart, true inclusion in the family of God in the kingdom.

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You have, by faith in Christ, that new heart that is truly given over to God, that glory is in Christ and no other, in what

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He has done and nothing else. All this can be sacrificed then on the altar of what?

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Confidence in the flesh. Recourse to what I have done. Believing that I can add something, anything at all, no matter how slight it would be, to what

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Christ Jesus has done. You know, there are consequences to these decisions.

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There are consequences to things that we do. Ideas have meaning, ideas have consequences, and so here, these salesmen of circumcision come into the

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Philippian church as they had the church in Galatia, which is probably Paul's earliest letter, as they had in Acts chapter 14, and they bring along this thing, they're saying, you just need to be circumcised.

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Hey, it's the law of Moses. Now, don't you want to be part of the law of Moses? I mean, Jesus was a Jew, Jesus followed the law of Moses, albeit he did perfectly, and by that obedience became our obedience, but that's another story.

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They're bringing along this product. This single thing, all you have to do is sign on the dotted line for circumcision.

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There are consequences. Many years ago, and I believe it was 60 minutes,

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I'm not positive anymore, but I know I saw a news type of show, a news magazine type of show, and it was about consumer protection for consumer credit issues, and they had, as the one they were interviewing, this woman who was a law professor in contract law and consumer law at Harvard, and she was going through the fine print on a credit card application, and back then it was a paper application which you had to sign, put in an envelope, put a stamp on the mail back to get your credit card, a little different than today, but the same basic idea, and she was going through the fine print, and she finally had to admit, with a bit of a smile on her face, she being a contract consumer law professor at one of the world's most prestigious law schools, and she says, you know, the only thing

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I can figure out from all this fine print is that when you sign it, you're committed to what the fine print says, but what it actually says,

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I can't tell you. I cannot put it into sensible terms. This fine print, there are consequences to these things we do, these commitments that we make, and so these purveyors of circumcision, and so today those who would tell you that by the works of your flesh, by the works of yourself, you can gain anything that Christ Jesus has procured, and He alone, they don't tell you about the fine print.

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They don't give you all the consequences. They suck you into this thing. They make you see this product, this credit card that's going to buy you anything you want, failing to tell you how the interest will pile up on you, and that the balance will go faster than anything you ever purchased, failing to tell you all that and more in the fine print.

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So these purveyors of circumcision failed to give the fine print, failed to tell them what the ultimate consequence was.

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Whether they understood it or not, they failed to acknowledge it or check it out for themselves.

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Galatians chapter 5, beginning of verse 3, the Apostle Paul reveals the consequence.

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He brings out the fine print, because with God, you see, there is no fine print. He speaks clearly in His Word.

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He tells us what we need to know. He shows us how to see ourselves, how to view our own works, how to analyze our own self -worth, and then the worth of Jesus Christ, which we'll come to as we see how

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Paul sees those things of relative values and relative worths. But here, for now, the fine print.

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And Paul warns them. You sign on this dotted line and you think all you're getting is a credit card so you can go out and buy these things that are enticing you.

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There's a consequence to it. Galatians chapter 5, he says, I testify to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

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Whoops! Wait, you didn't tell me that. Well, you already signed. The old song, once I met the devil, he was mighty slick, tempted me with worldly goods, said, you can have your pick.

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But when he laid that paper on me and he showed me where to sign, I said, thank you very kindly, but I'm in too great a need of mine, my own soul.

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Just get circumcised. Just join the law of Moses. Just come on into this holy and right way of being.

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This has lasted for centuries. It's a good product. Just sign and we'll take care of it for you. Paul says, you're obligated then to keep the whole law, because by that one act you have said,

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Jesus Christ was not enough. His work on the cross was insufficient. When he said it is finished, it wasn't completely finished.

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He meant it was almost finished. And here I'm going to add this single act. Read the book of James and he would tell you also that if you would keep the law as a means of gaining what

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Christ alone has procured, you are now obligated to it all. Paul goes on to say to the

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Galatians, and I would argue to the Philippians and to us, you are severed from Christ.

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And these are very strong words. You are severed from Christ. Having severed that physical part of yourself in the circumcision act, you have severed from Christ.

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Is that in the contract? Did Judas put that forward? No, no more than in big print, the credit application would show you what you're really going to have to do in terms of the math, the arithmetic of your finances.

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They don't tell you. Here Paul puts it out in plain English. You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace, severed by choice, severed because of our self -reliance.

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Brethren, in Christ Jesus we have no self -reliance.

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Coming to faith in Christ Jesus is a repudiation of self -reliance. It's a setting aside of self.

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It's looking to the cross, the cross alone because I've repented of my sins that I can do only by faith that God gives.

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By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it, the faith, it is the gift of God.

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And to be circumcised, to fall away from that grace, is a logical consequence because you're saying no, it's not totally by grace, it's by grace, 99 .9,

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but that .1 is me. No. You've obligated yourself to the whole law.

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You've fallen away from grace, severed by choice. Do you ever feel like you deserve to be saved, however slightly?

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As if God should open the doors of paradise for you, simply for who you are? You know, some of us here, and many of us might believe what the

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Universalists say, that everybody's going to get to go to heaven, God is love, and God wouldn't send anybody to hell, so everybody's going to be saved, and it's all wonderful.

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What does the Scripture say? In verses 3 -6 of Philippians 3, the

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Apostle Paul gives his resume, and his resume was better than anyone's, certainly better than these

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Judaizers, better than yours or mine. If anyone might have earned their way into salvation, it had to have been

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Paul. Look again at those verses with me, chapter 3, verse 4. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh,

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I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal of persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

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Now there's a sparkling resume. Look at everything he had confidence in. He was circumcised on the eighth day.

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Now isn't that a point to be proud of? Circumcised on the eighth day? Wasn't that great of me to allow myself to be circumcised when

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I was eight days old? The baby was brought to the temple and the law of Moses confirmed in his flesh.

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And he could be proud of this. He could put this forward because he had so much to do with it. He's of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin.

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He knows his descendancy, where he came from. He's from one of the most prestigious tribes of Israel and he can prove it.

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And he's proud of that. As if he chose those things. Perhaps there's an inventory in heaven of disembodied souls watching for the right parents to say, okay, when that child begins to be made

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I'll join myself to that and I'll become of the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin because I chose them. Well, that'd be silly.

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He set that aside. He's a Hebrew of Hebrews, meaning his family had no mixing with the Gentiles. He was pure.

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No Gentile of blood. It slipped into the line. And you hear by the way I preached that, by the way

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I said that, he's proud of these things he had nothing at all to do with. He couldn't have chosen any of those things.

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He could not have chosen or directed his circumcision that he'd be born of Israel that his family line would be so pure.

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But see now what he did choose. What did he choose? If we are warned to be careful of being proud of things like our social status, the parents who raised us, the inheritance we have.

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Those are things that are not chosen and yet we take pride in them. He wraps all that up in that one ancient rite.

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He's saying circumcision is confidence in anything other than Christ. Even in matters over which he, over which we, over which you had no choice.

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Now look what he did choose. Going on in these same verses. To be a Pharisee. The Harvard Law School of Mosaic Legislation.

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The most prestigious sect known for their utter and complete fastidious keeping of the law. Knowing how to count out little seeds of cumin and give one to God and nine to me.

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He was a Pharisee. Also known to be rather wealthy in general. Galatians chapter 1 verse 14.

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Paul tells of how he advanced in Judaism. He means in Pharisee -ism beyond many of his own age.

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He was a star pupil. He was a summa cum laude. As to zeal, he was a persecutor of the church.

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To rage against those who were made free from that old slavery. He says as to the law, blameless.

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Excuse me, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. He didn't mean that he never violated the law.

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Righteousness in that context has a different flavor. It just means that as well as any human could, and let's put him at the top of the heap of all humans, he obeyed the law.

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He was blameless. No one observing him, no person observing him, no other human watching his physical actions could bring fault against him.

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No one was better. No one tried harder. No one accomplished more. And here is what it was for Paul.

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You can read this in Romans chapter 7 for your homework. I will not cite any of that this morning. Here is what it was.

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It was try, try, try. It was work, work, work. It was strive, strive, strive.

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So you try, you work, you strive. You try, you work, you strive. You're trying to make yourself better. You're trying to make yourself worthwhile.

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You're looking at this resume saying, this is worth something. I've worked so hard towards this.

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Surely God is pleased with me. And surely we in this hard charging

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Silicon Valley, full of hard charging Silicon Valley -ites are accustomed to thinking this way.

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I set a goal ahead of me, and I accomplished it, and I accomplished it better than I thought I would. I accomplished it better than the next guy did, or the next guy will.

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And we take pride. And we infuse that into our Christian life. But what

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Paul says is as good as our skills are, as much as our discipline is, as hard as you work, by your own discipline, by your own zeal, by your own energy, you will never be good enough.

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It's try, it's work, it's strive. It's try, it's work, it's strive. Do you remember the myth of Sisyphus?

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Sisyphus, who was condemned to rolling a boulder up a hill, and it would get so close to the top he almost had success, he had almost done good enough, and it would roll back down to the bottom and he had to start the whole process again.

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And this is the slavery to which the Philippians would have committed themselves had they submitted to this right of circumcision, bringing with it the entire body of law.

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And this is the slavery that I warn you of from Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 -11 this morning.

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That no, you are not good enough. Your efforts are not zealous enough, not energetic enough, not complete enough, not quality enough, not anything enough, but one is.

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One is. Christ Jesus, our Lord, His perfect obedience to God in this life as a man, what we call his act of obedience, where he obeyed the law of God, the holiness of God with every breath he took.

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And that by faith is yours for we are the real circumcision and we can wrap all those things together and make it into one statement we're the real circumcision because of our faith, therefore

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Christ's obedience is mine. It's mine and I rely fully on that and none on me.

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Now let me not try to make the numbers sound so much more for Christ so small for me it's just all

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Christ and none me that simple. Go the other way.

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We enter into circumcision by any self -reliance and it's slavery and it's useless and you will never be good enough and the gospel says you don't have to be good enough you cannot be good enough.

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Christ Jesus is good enough. Christ Jesus is superlative good enough. Christ Jesus is better than we can imagine and his work was full and complete on the cross and our reliance upon that must be full and complete all of him none me.

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That's what Paul's saying that's the great warning that we have here. That's the fine print that even a

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Harvard law professor could not figure out that Paul reveals for us.

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It's as if a return in that one small act of the law you've taken it all upon yourself and as soon as we in our flesh try to accomplish or add to what

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Christ on the cross has done we've joined with this thing that Paul so strongly points us against.

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Here's what they didn't tell them. Here's what they don't tell you. Here's what even the health and welfare gospel sounds so good to so many people.

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They don't tell you that what you are taking upon yourself is this works based prayer. This idea that you have to pray with enough faith.

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There's the quality of your faith it's the length of your prayer. It's your belief in the power of the word and all these other things and that will get it and if you didn't get your blessing it's because of you so you need to try and strive and work and try and strive and work and it is all false it is all circumcision and it is all what

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Christ has set aside if your faith is in him if your faith and trust and hope be in him that is all set aside you are the real circumcision.

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The apostle gives us his resume and what he wants to do is as he's showing us the fine print behind this idea of being circumcised show us the relative value that we need to place on self versus Christ.

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The relative value of Christ versus ourselves. Again verse 4.

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Though I have reason and confidence for the flesh though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

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If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day and excuse me

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I started writing in the wrong place excuse me I wanted to be on verse 7 I'm sorry verse 7 the relative value.

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But whatever gain I had I'd count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

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Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

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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.

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The righteousness from God that depends on faith. You know that verse 9 that I just read and slowed down a bit on.

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That's one of those beautiful short one verse encapsulations of the gospel.

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The entire gospel is really right there in that one verse it's like Romans 1 16. Paul says for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

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There's the gospel. Believe. There's the gospel. That, the gospel.

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Christ Jesus died for your sins. The gospel that God raised him from the dead. The gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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Right there in that one verse. And here in Philippians 3 9 And be found in him, in Christ Jesus not having a righteousness of my own not having a workspace, not having a circumcision that I'm relying on.

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Not having a resume that I think sparkles enough for God to open the doors of paradise for me. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, that comes from circumcision that comes from self works, that comes from any deed of the flesh that I can do but that which comes through faith in Christ.

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The righteousness of God, the righteousness from God that depends on faith for by grace you'll be saved through faith and it's not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works so that no one should boast

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Galatians 2 8 Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says for he made him to be sin for us that him

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Jesus Christ who knew no sin he was perfect, he was obedient to God in all he did that we might become, what?

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The righteousness of God in him. Not a righteousness close to God, not a righteousness that is near to what he would demand the full righteousness that God demands of any who be with him, anyone who would be in his presence is yours in Christ Jesus by faith and by faith alone.

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I love these one verse gospels that we have this righteousness perfect righteousness which allows us to stand before God, this righteousness that comes not by the works of the flesh but by faith in Christ is what includes you in the family of God.

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This is one of the reasons why Paul could say for we are the real circumcision for we really belong to God you are

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Abraham's true sons by circumcision like Abraham did in Genesis 17, no no no no, not by circumcision you are

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Abraham's true sons by faith by faith read Galatians and how strongly

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Paul makes the point that Abraham was counted as righteous by faith years and years and years, 430 years before the law this righteousness that comes from God, this is where Paul puts his relative evaluation for us, that I count everything as rubbish different translators have come up with all kinds of words that you can speak during a sermon at a church and it's just the worst kind of garbage you can imagine and just don't let your mind go too far it's just, this is garbage and Christ is superlatively valuable this is rubbish everything

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I had whether it's my circumcision on the 8th day whether it's being born to the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin a

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Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee and so on what is all that? Garbage rubbish everything that needs to be set aside because they get in the way of our full trust and hope and reliance on Christ Jesus see how he says it here it's all lost for the sake of Christ I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of Christ, of knowing

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Him knowing is that word of intimate knowledge of experiential knowledge, of walking with Him and talking with Him, praying with Him and knowing

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Him and becoming like Him by my prayers, by my study of Scripture, by my attendance at church by seeing what the

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Scripture says of my sins and repenting and knowing the forgiveness that Christ Jesus has won for me on the cross again and again knowing

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Christ Jesus my Lord for His sake I have suffered the loss of all things they are rubbish in order that what?

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I may gain Christ to know Him to gain

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Him, to be found in Him and be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own but that depends on God how do you value

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Christ? where is Christ in your pantheon of valuations?

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where does He stack up? what do you need to set aside? is it your resume?

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is it your birthright? is it your wonderful efforts as sanctification in this life?

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ask yourself now in what do I take pride? where do

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I place my confidence and my hope really? what do you need to take out of there and put in the rubbish pile?

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is it your checkbook? that strikes terror in many hearts oh no no no, get off my checkbook, get on to something else pastor, ok, is it your pride?

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and you go, whew, ok, pride ok, I'm going to mortify my pride I'm going to keep my checkbook safe but I'm going to mortify my pride we need to be careful of these things we need to show the fruit of the

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Spirit in the company of the saints and if all you're going to do is mortify your pride, which we all must do it's one of the hardest things there is to do well we can hide it, can't we?

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we know the right words to speak, we know the right language to have, we know how to act and how to behave to show the humility we need to be careful here, we need to look at ourselves very carefully, very very hardly very harshly if you will and see what is it that I'm holding up against this beauty, this surpassing value of Christ and knowing

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Him Paul's resume became just so much garbage in that whole inventory of things that he had counted on before how is all this wrapped together?

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what is our final hope, our final confidence? what is the reason for our ultimate hope?

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what holds us together in this life? what makes all this effort worthwhile? but we're not like Sisyphus because we're not rolling a boulder up a hill that's just going to roll down again because we're moving towards a place and God's going to bring us there and it is

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God who brings us along, read Pilgrim's Progress and you'll see how Christian is helped all the way by God, he puts in the effort, he puts in the strain, he's carrying his burden on his back until he gets to the cross, all those beautiful metaphorical pictures what makes it all worthwhile?

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what gives us hope in this struggle against our sin, against our pride, against our self -sufficiency against we always try to circumcise ourselves because by circumcision we can say well

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I at least did something, that COVID patient who thanks the nurses and doctors for having added something to what he was accomplishing laying there unconscious with a tube down his throat what holds all this together is the last couple of verses that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death that by any means possible

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I may attain the resurrection from the dead, the resurrection is our final hope

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Romans chapter 4 verse 25 says that he was raised, Jesus Christ was resurrected for our justification it was

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God's final stamp of approval approving to us, certifying to us, not to his son, his son knew his work was right,

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God knew his work was right and full and complete, to us we get the certification that our hope was not in vain because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead for our justification that I may know him come to him, that I may put my faith in him, that I may know the power of his resurrection,

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Ephesians 1 19 speaks of the power of the resurrection which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and he works toward we who believe this power he gives us because of the resurrection and your faith in Christ who was resurrected your hope that you too will follow after him who is the first fruits of the resurrection to become like him to know him by prayer, by mortification of the deeds of the flesh as the apostle

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Paul puts it in chapter 6 of Romans through repentance for our sins and becoming more and more like him become like him because of the resurrection that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings and this is the sufferings that he went through because he was in a sin crushed world,

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Jesus Christ suffered in this world, not just on the cross but in his whole course of this world we share in his sufferings as we become like him and it's suffering to mortify the flesh, it is suffering to recognize our sin, it is suffering to constantly have to confess our sins but brethren, it is good it is good because all of this presages for us the hope of the resurrection as we become like him we see that it's a real progress, not just pushing that boulder up a hill, not just find print that came up and caught us in the end that God gives us a true hope even in this life hinged and based upon the hope we have in the next by the resurrection and this is how

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Paul finishes this section by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead we will all die we've seen death all around us lately we see it on the news, some of us have friends and relatives who are suffering this death inducing epidemic that we have here and even without it death hovers over all of us because all will die that's a startling statistic one out of one that by any means possible

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I may attain the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ said as he went to his friend Lazarus' funeral that he who believes in me, though he dies yet he shall live, that's the resurrection brethren, and that's what holds this whole thing together in chapter 3 verse 1 -11 of Philippians that we are the circumcision that we are the real circumcision, that we are those who by faith in Christ Jesus know that I am

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God's child, not by circumcision as in Genesis chapter 17 and throughout history up until Christ, but by faith in Christ, I am

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Abraham's true child I am truly in God's family by Abrahamic faith, not by circumcision what binds that to us what gives us hope in constantly working towards Christ and trying to be like him and looking to ourselves and being rid of all these things in which we put so much confidence and hope and trust even if it's ever so slight go home today and ask yourself before God even if it's so tiny where am

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I putting my hope and let the resurrection and the surpassing worth of Christ overcome that for you and leave your prayer closet closer to that image of becoming more like him, suffering through that process of confessing and repenting and knowing

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God's forgiveness, once again becoming like him where do we put our trust where's your trust we're helpless, we're hopeless, we're ragged all our righteousnesses as the prophet

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Isaiah are like filthy rags before God, and yet to be found in him, to be found in Christ Jesus is to be found with the perfect righteousness of God himself so fall back brethren not upon yourselves look carefully to yourself and ask yourself have

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I done so read the fine print that Paul exposes here and see all the burden that you will be bringing upon yourself committing yourself to don't sign that line if you have signed it, bring that credit application contract to God and say

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Lord please I plead with you in the name of Christ Jesus take this back, may

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God be pleased to grow us more and more into the image of his Son, Amen All right

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Heavenly Father we thank you again for bringing us together into this day, I thank you Father that we have such a word as this that warns us as it does and waves us off the course of self -sufficiency and confidence and puts all our hope and trust in Christ Jesus and I pray that it would be so that you would buy this and make us more like him, we ask it in Jesus name