Untitled Sermon

mercy excuse me turn with me to philippians chapter three if you would philippians chapter three philippians chapter three as we've been studying philippians for those that have been with us the overall theme of the book of philippians under which we've been looking at this book is learning to rejoice in the lord i believe that's something that we have to learn it should be natural and as long as we recognize the presence of god with us regularly it is natural and so learning to rejoice in the lord involves several things then we're recognizing god's presence is concerned and we've broken that down into the different chapters in philippians chapter one is learning to rejoice in the opportunities to serve christ as we see every

event in our daily life as an opportunity to serve christ every event from the time your little eyeball is open in the morning and you become coherent as to the world around you until the time you go to sleep at night every event event. Every instance is an opportunity to serve Christ. I don't believe there's anything called fate. I don't believe there's anything called luck. I don't believe there are bad circumstances

that happen to Christians. I believe everything is ordered of the Lord where you are a child of God. He has set a path before you. Ephesians 2.10 tells us in which you should walk. And so I believe that each event is scheduled by God and how we respond to that event will determine several things. The main thing is whether or not we will reap the blessings that God has intended to pour

out for us at that particular time. I don't believe we can hurt the plan of God because I believe God will accomplish what he's purposed in spite of us. He wants to use us, but if we don't want to be used at the time, God will still accomplish what he purposes to accomplish without us. And we lose out on the blessing of his presence and on the blessing of his pouring out blessings for our availability to him. So seeing every event, every opportunity,

in our lives as an opportunity to serve Christ is what we saw in chapter one. Chapter two, close behind that, is learning to rejoice in the Lord by having the mind of Christ. Not just knowing about Christ, but having his mind literally. And we spent several weeks in chapter two looking at that and learning about that, how it involves a yielding of ourselves to the Father and emptying of ourselves as Jesus emptied himself to be made in the form of a servant, to be made in the form of a man.

And to be obedient to the Father, obedient even unto death, even unto the death of the cross. That's the mind of Christ that's supposed to be in us. Where we become yielded to the Father's will, to whatever is necessary, whatever he wants to do with us in order to glorify his name and tell others about Jesus, we become yielded to him in that. It involves chapter two, verse 14, a memorable verse, do everything without grumbling and complaining. And that's part of the mind of

Christ. We can't excuse grumbling and complaining in our lives anymore. It has to be dealt with. It has to be curbed. We can no longer allow ourselves to grumble and complain about situations, about how God's doing things about other people, because we are to be others centered, having that mind of Christ, which seeks to serve and benefit others. As we move into chapter three, we're learning now how

to rejoice in the calling of Christ. Chapter three is going to be learning how to rejoice in the calling of Christ. Let's look at chapter three here briefly. Let's just read through it so we can kind of get a feel for the whole chapter. And then we'll go back and we're only going to look at the first seven verses this morning. Paul writes in verse one, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It's no trouble for me to write the same things to

you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the Sabbath, I have no confidence in the flesh, and I have no confidence in the flesh. I have no confidence in the flesh. I have no confidence in the flesh. The eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of

Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I consider them rubbish that I may gain

Christ. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I consider them rubbish that I may gain and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but the righteousness, that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect,

but I press on to take hold of that. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.

Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform us. He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body, learning to rejoice in the calling of Christ. Now all of this, all of our learning to rejoice in the Lord, and then all these little subheadings underneath that, are to deal with what we've labeled circumstantial Christianity.

Circumstantial Christianity, where we will no longer just walk and rejoice in the Lord when things are good or forget about the Lord, and then when things are bad, cry out to him as though he'd abandon us, left us for dead, and then he brings us up and things are good and we rejoice in the Lord, but then the things get a little sticky and we grumble and complain because our circumstances aren't what we'd like them to be. We need to be, brothers and sisters today, we need to be walking consistently. What the world needs to see is Christians who really believe what they profess, who really walk in it, and not just like the world is moved about by the circumstances of our lives.

So learning to rejoice in the Lord is how we overcome that circumstantial Christianity. And learning to rejoice in the Lord is how we overcome that circumstantial Christianity. So learning to rejoice in the Lord is how we overcome that circumstantial Christianity. I think the main reason the calling of Christ is going to be an exciting study, I think in chapter three, because I mentioned it earlier, God has called you.

He has called you, and as he has called you, he has equipped you. And he has determined a path for you and I to walk. And again, so there are no bad things that happen to Christians in God's plan. Because he has called you for a special purpose, and you can trust him with that purpose. You can trust him with every issue in your life where his calling of you is concerned.

call you and then just send you out to live and and you live and hope that you're doing the right thing and hope that things are going to go well and hope that all of this is going to work out he called you with a purpose and he wants you to know that purpose and he wants you to trust him as you walk and so learning to rejoice in the calling of god is going to involve three things i believe and that's how we'll look at this chapter let me give those to you and then we'll go back and look at the first one learning to rejoice in the calling of christ first of all is is going to be as we learn how to deal with our past the first seven verses of chapter three are

going to be learning how to deal with our past secondly after we learn how to deal with our past or learn what we need to do to deal with our past verses 8 through 11 we'll learn how we should be living in the present how to live in the present and we'll talk about this in a minute many of us live in the past not in the present or we live in the future rather than living in the present with a view toward the future satan can get us bogged down either way so we need to learn how to deal with the past how to live in the present and then how to live in the future look toward the future. That's verses 12 through 21. How to look toward the future, verses 12 through 21. Let's look at the first seven verses here, the first one. How to deal with your past.

If you've been with us through our study in Philippians, you remember back in chapter 1, we asked the question, who are you? Who are you? Because in chapter 1, verse 1, Paul answers that as he identifies himself and his fellow servants as servants or bond slaves is the word in the Greek, bond slaves of Jesus Christ. And so from chapter 1 on, I've been trying to emphasize that every opportunity I can to remember who you are. You have been bought with a price. You are no

longer your own. You can no longer demand rights from God because you are his bond slave, a servant who says, yes, Lord, where Lord, when Lord, how Lord, I'll do it. I'll be obedient to you. That's what a bond slave is, willingly obedient to the master. And so from chapter 1, verse 1 on, we've tried to continually emphasize that as to who we are. Now, knowing that and

learning to live it out practically is where things get difficult. You and I can know that. Yeah, I've been telling us that over and over, but living it out practically in my daily walk is where it gets difficult because I am so often overcome by the circumstances that I forget who I am. When you are asked that question, let me ask that again. The same question. Who are you? When

you're asked that question out anywhere, do you still tend to define yourself first as an employee of, a worker for, a member of, the husband of, the wife of, the children of, the parents of? Do we still seek to first tell people who we are by our identity with other things in this life? Well, who are you? Well, I'm from Denver and I pastor a church and I have a wife and two kids and going to school and all that stuff. Is that what we do first? Or do you still practically put this down and say,

when somebody says, who are you? I'm Mark Fry. I'm a child of the King, blood bought. I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. Do we consciously think of that? Or again, I seek to identify ourselves with something else in this life. Now, even knowing who we are as a bond slave of Jesus Christ, as I sit here and I ask this question again, who are you? And you say in your mind,

I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. Still, still, there is a tendency to allow your past to all of a sudden come flooding in upon you as you sit there and say, I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. And yet all of a sudden Satan seems to push a button and flooding in over your mind can come your past. Some of you are still trying to deal with your past. Some of you had such experiences that were so bad in your past that even though

you are saved, even though you've come to Christ, there is the bondage of the past that follows you and haunts you. You feel as if you have to do things now in order to make up for your past. There is a shared first service. There's someone that Ann and I know, not from here. So don't try and think of who this is, who I'm sharing about, because it's not anybody here, but someone that we know who grew up in a very poor area,

in such a poor and dirty upbringing that it's one of those that you can't even really begin to describe. Now has come to Christ and because of the past is consumed now because of the filth of the past is consumed with a meticulous tidiness, a meticulous keeping everything clean as if, you know, even a hint of dirt or whatever would remind them of the past. And it's almost like there's this obsession with keeping the past. From overcoming and here the past just consumes almost. And maybe some of you are like that.

Maybe there's something in your past, some abuse or some really horrible thing. And in order to seek to try and deal with that, you have turned and gone absolutely the opposite direction, trying to get as far away from that as you can. And everything you do, you feel like you got to do it because if you don't, that past is going to catch up with you and overcome you. And so rather than being able to do it, you're going to have to do it. And so rather than being able to

deal with that past and be done with it, you're dealing with it every day. And it just almost overwhelms you. And you try and do things to make up for that. Now, some of you may be sitting there and you have no idea what I'm talking about. You had such a wonderful upbringing, such a wonderful childhood. That's usually a smaller percentage than the other one. But there's still those

sitting here who will have had a great childhood. You did wonderfully in school. You were excellent in school. You won awards in school. You did great in sports. You played marvelous sports, a whole variety of sports. You excelled in every area of sports. Or you were, you tried out for beauty pageants and you won beauty pageants and you have trophies at home. Or you've made such wonderful strides in the past.

Everything you've done has just been great. And you have all of these things at home that tell of how great your past was. And you live in that. And you identify with that. And you still see yourself as that. Many sitting here today long for a past, long to live in the past. We had the big nostalgia thing 10 years ago or so. And the residue of it is still hanging on because

we think that if I just were back in the past, things would be a lot better. I have a clip here from USA Today survey that was done last year for Kodak, for the Kodak company. They did a survey of parents who were given a choice which decade they would like to be able to raise their children in. From everything before 1950 until the present. Guess which decade? Which decade? Which decade? Which

decade they chose 50s majority of people would like to raise their children in the 50s because for some reason you know we we mock ozzie and harriet we mock father knows best and yet the majority of people surveyed would like to have raised their kids back during those times because they perceived that there was something there that you know that's where things were great hey listen things were still bad in the 50s there has been apart from the lord there is no good thing is what the scriptures say you know but we have this idea that somehow uh in in my past it's either so horrible and i'm trying to trying to get away from it but it still has these effects and i'm still

trying to do things to make up for that or things were so good that that's what i identify myself with i may have won football trophies and stuff 30 years ago but when people ask me what i do i'll tell them you know i used to be great in football and played it for 30 years but you know i used to be great in that or that's because they identify with the past you see and they're living in the past. When I asked that question, who are you? And if you could not say right off, well, I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ, or if that's not how you feel and you want to tell other people when they say, when they want to know about you, one of the first things you want to tell them is that you're a Christian. Let me ask, why not? Why not? Is your salvation and your

walk with Christ simply something that you've added to your life? Is it something that you simply added at some point in the past? You know, you were walking through life and you wanted a job, and so you added a job. And then you wanted a husband or wife, and so you added a husband or wife. And then you wanted children, and so at some point in the past, you added children. And

then you heard about Jesus, and so at some point in your life, you added Jesus, and that's it. And he's just been something you've added to your life, or is he your life? I think I've shared this before. I've seen a bumper sticker and now a t-shirt that says, life is based on your life. Baseball. Everything else is details. What does that communicate about the individual who wears

that or who displays that? It means to them, life is baseball. That's it. They eat baseball. They drink baseball. They sleep baseball. They think baseball. They talk baseball. They do baseball. They wear baseball stuff. They have baseball paraphernalia in their home. They would rather be playing baseball than be anywhere else in the world. Baseball is life and everything else is

details. Well, in Philippians 121, Paul says, for me to live is Christ and everything else is details, basically is what he could say. And as Christians, that's the way our lives should be. Life is Christ and everything else is details. Not adding him to my life, but he is my life. I'm absorbed with him every waking moment. Everything I do is to be absorbed with Christ. To do that, you have to learn to deal with your past.

Now, two common ways you can view your past, and I've basically shared that, is number one, you can look at your past as basically bad. You have a bad past. You don't want to talk about it. Things were so bad. Just like the individual I mentioned that Ann and I know, we just want to try and do everything we can to get ourselves as far away from the past as we can, seeking to do things to make up for it.

Or I'm proud of my past, and I'm so proud of my past and who I am in my past that I live in my past, and I'd like to live in my past. I'd like to go back to high school. God forbid. I'd like to. Both of those views are wrong of our past, and both of those hinder us from experiencing the joy of the Lord that we are to experience that Paul wants us to understand how to live in the

past and how to experience. And so Paul shows us in these first seven verses how to deal with our past. Now, everybody has a suggestion for us on how to do that. Just forget it is one. Just forget it. How do you forget it? Well, Paul's going to mention that in here, and we're going to look at that next week, next time. How to forget. You are to forgive, and you're to forget. How do you

forget? God forgets. How can God forget? God's sovereign. God knows anything. If there's something that he didn't know, if he forgot, he wouldn't be sovereign because there's something he wouldn't know. So how does God forget? We'll talk about that because you and I are to forget the same way God forgets. To tell somebody, just forget about your past is, you know, just grow another arm. Well,

we go to the other extreme today, too. Now, we have hypnotherapy or regression therapy, where all of your problems are because of your past. And so what we're going to do is regress you back to that time in your past where that terrible incident happened that you may not even know what it was. But we'll regress you back to that, and we'll bring it out. And lo and behold,

you were abused, and you didn't even remember it, and that's because you blocked it out. But there's some hideous thing that you can do. And that's what we're going to do. And that's what you're saying in your past that we'll regress you back to, and we'll bring that out so that you can deal with it, so that you can face it and deal with it because you can't go on in life until you deal with it. And then your whole life becomes a series of regressing back and finding out what

that was and dealing with it. And then you can't go on any further because there's got to be something else back there that you haven't dealt with. So your whole life becomes regressing and seeking to face, regressing and seeking to face. And so you're literally walking through life like this, looking back at the past, trying to deal with all of those things. But then if you're

Christians, oh, now we have visualization. so now we can regress you back to that situation and you can visualize christ coming into that situation and speaking to that situation and healing that situation and you just listen to what jesus says and you do what he tells you to do and that's demon possession that is from the pits of hell if you do that but christians by the thousands are falling for that kind of thing how to deal with your past paul tells us how to do that in these first seven verses here in here in philippians here in this section of philippians we are introduced to a group of individuals that that are called the judiaizers that are called the judiaizers they followed paul around

from town to town wherever he went and established a church established a ministry they would come in behind him let me tell you a little bit about the judiaizers they were this group who insisted on the obligation of the mosaic laws being binding for the believer in other words they would come in and primarily to the gentiles and they would say principally to the gentiles and principally to the applies primarily to the believers commission principally to the gentiles commission or more specifically to the families commission or more specifically well, you know, what Paul says about accepting Christ and believing in him for salvation is partially true, but there's something else you need to do. And basically, you know why they did

that? Because it was to help them deal with their past. You see, because they were Gentiles. They were scum. We'll talk about that in a minute. Paul refers to that in one of his definitions here. They were dogs, literally. And so to the Jewish mind, to a lot of the Jewish minds, it was hard to understand how God could receive them when after all he called us. And so the

Judaizers ascribed to Mosaic law to the extent that they wanted to make everybody else like them. So unless you're like us, you're not really saved. You have to ascribe to the Mosaic law, specifically circumcision. Specifically, that's the sign. Oh, they drew you to kosher food and all that stuff, too. You have to eat according to the dietary law. You have to keep all of the

Sabbath and everything else, but primarily Gentile. If you're going to think you're saved, you have to ascribe to circumcision. They were legalists. They were proud of their Jewish heritage of the past, and they were literally living in the pride of their past. They felt that the Gentile believers needed to conform to those standards. They purposed to have the answers for everybody's past. All you need to do is be just like us and

especially be circumcised. But they failed to remember, you see, that it wasn't circumcision that justified Abraham. It wasn't circumcision that made Abraham righteous. Abraham, was declared righteous by God by his faith, and then came circumcision. Circumcision did not save him. It was a sign of the righteousness of God. It was on him as he was called out. You see,

the reason I'm emphasizing this is because the Bible tells us how you come to Christ. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. That's it. But you have people come along and say, well, now, you know. Unless you're doing this, or unless you fit this, or unless you wear one of these stupid things,

you're really not saved. Your hair's too long, or your hair's too short, or you wear facial hair, or you do this or do that. Don't wear one of these little things over here. You ain't saved. You're really not spiritual. If you don't speak in tongues, if you don't dance in the spirit, if you don't do these foot washings, if you don't do sacraments every day,

then you're not really saved. If you don't baptize by immersion, you're not really saved. And, oh, if you don't baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you're not really saved. Everybody wants us to jump through all these different hoops. That's the principle of the Judaizer. And all of that, you see, is meant to help you deal with

your past. Because after all, you know, your past is so hideous, just look at you. You're not like me. If I can make you look like me and act like me, then I've succeeded in making another lost individual. And that's just exactly what Jesus said to the Pharisees. You travel across the world to make proselytes. And when you do, you get them, and you just make them twice the sons of hell,

as you are. See? Because that's not our job, is to conform people into our image. It's to tell them about Jesus. It's to tell them about the love of Christ. Paul's going to do that here. Let's look at this, at the first seven verses. Paul summarizes, and this really is a summary. Finally, brothers. I know you've got a whole other chapter, two full chapters before he quits.

But he is really summarizing. This is not Paul going, well, I'm going to close now and then write another three pages worth of letter. He's really summarizing what he says. And it took me a while to understand it. I thought, well, that's just wordy, Paul. You know, Paul's going to close, and then he speaks all night like he did, you know, when Eutychus fell out of the window.

He should have shut up earlier, and Eutychus would have not had to fall out of the window. But that was, no, this is not that. This is a summary statement. Paul is summarizing what he said and what he's about to say. And he says, rejoice in the Lord. It's no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Rejoice in the Lord.

Finally, brothers, I'm going to summarize everything I've said. I've said, rejoice in the Lord. Well, you've already said that. Exactly. I'm summarizing everything that I've said. Rejoice in the Lord. And that's in the imperative in the Greek. That's a command. You're rejoicing in the Lord is not a suggestion. If you and I are Christians, and we call ourselves Christians, and we're not rejoicing in the Lord, listen, I believe we're

in sin, because that's a command. We can't apathetically go around saying, well, you just don't understand the circumstances I'm in. Yes, yes, he does. He's delineated all of them and how to handle them all in this little book of Philippians. Rejoice in the Lord. It's a command. And literally, it's in the present, which means there's a continuous rejoicing,

continually rejoicing in the Lord, not in circumstances, not in trials, not in what's going on around you. You're rejoicing in the Lord because you're in Christ. Remember, that's where you are. Chapter one, verse one, who you are, you're a bond slave, what you are, you're set apart, you're hagios, you're holy unto God. Thirdly, where are you? You're in Christ. All

in verse one of chapter one. And it's no trouble, he says, literally, I'm not being slothful in writing this to you. In other words, I'm not wasting paper. I didn't come down here and I, well, I'm out of what to say now. I don't know what to say anymore. So I'll just write it again, rejoice in the Lord. No, he's not, that's what he's saying. I'm not, it's no trouble for me to

do this. I'm not slothful in doing this. And then he says, it is a safeguard for you. The word safeguard is from two Greek words, which mean secure or firm or certain or not tripped up. In other words, Paul's saying it's stabilizing for you to hear again and again and again, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. It's a safeguard for you. It keeps you from getting tripped up by the false teachers and by

the circumstances that surround you. So if you're like me, and after these studies, you go home and the next thing you come to, remember the week of grumbling and complaining, and you probably sat there and went, I'm not supposed to grumble and complain. And you probably said it about like that. Cause I know I did. I'm not supposed to grumble and complain. You know, what's cool

about that though? You heard it again. You said it. And the little fluids in your brain washed over your brain and your little synapses and the neurons just fired that through again. I'm not supposed to grumble and complain. And so do this and rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. And it fires and it fires and it fires. And it's a safeguard. It keeps us from getting tripped up. The next time the bad circumstances happen, supposedly bad,

and you go rejoice in the Lord, it's a safeguard. See, and Paul knows that. So he says, it's no bother. It's not a waste of space. It's a safeguard. It keeps you from getting tripped up. And then he gives us a warning here, beginning in verse two, he says, watch out for the dogs, for those men who do evil, for those mutilators of the flesh. Now, if you learn, if you learn

anything from me, from sitting under this teaching, as you come here every week, learn number one, to always read things in context, always read it in context. In other words, like we're going through these verses, we read all of chapter three to keep this text in its context and its overall text. Secondly, learn whenever God says something more than once, for our understanding that we really better grab that one, because God's not one to repeat himself unless it's for emphasis sake. And thirdly, as you're reading the word, when there are things that help define a thought, sit down and ponder those things.

Paul didn't say, beware of those guys who, he says, beware of the dogs, those men who do evil, the mutilators of the flesh. That means we're to sit down and ponder. Why did you say that? Whenever you have lists, ponder a list. Whenever you have the, genealogy, sit down and really ask God about genealogies. There's a reason he printed it. There's a reason he put it in his word. And here, let's look at these three things real quick. He

says, beware of, beware of the dogs. Why did he say that? J. Vernon McGee in his commentary says, this is not a warning to male men. The Jews used that term for Gentiles, for us Gentiles, goyim, dogs. It's a term of rebuke and a term of disrespect. It showed a delineation and a distinction between the Gentiles and the Jews. The Jews were the called ones of God. This is

rejoicing in God. The call of God. You are called of God. And there was a separation between them and the rest of the world. You and I were dogs, were considered dogs as Gentiles. It was a, it was a word of disrespect. In Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 18. Don't turn there. Just listen, write it down and turn there later. Deuteronomy 23, 18, Moses declared, you must not bring the earnings of

a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord, your God, to pay any vow because the Lord, your God detests them both. The word there that's translated male prostitute in Deuteronomy 23, 18 is the word dogs. Same word as here. Male prostitute. Isaiah chapter 56, verse 10. Isaiah writes, Israel's watchmen are blind. They all lack knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They cannot bark. They lie around and dream.

They love to sleep. Same word. They are mute dogs because they weren't, the leaders of Israel were not declaring the truth of the word of God. So it was a derogatory term. And here Paul is using it of the Judaizers. He's turning it right back to them. He says, secondly, those men who do evil, those men who do evil, the word evil, there's a word that means evil in character. And it deals with the motivation of why they were doing what they

were doing. It was an evil motivation. You know what, you know what, you know what a wrong motivation is for anything that we do in life. Anything that's not for the glory of God. We need to do what we do for the glory of God. Anything else is a wrong motivation. And so they were evil. In their motivation. You know what they were doing it for is for self, for self glorification,

for self exaltation. So that when they conformed one of them into somebody else into what they looked like, they could say, I've succeeded. You know, it was for a self-righteousness. Those who do evil. Thirdly, he said, mutilators of the flesh, mutilators of the flesh. It says in NIV, if you're reading King James, it says the concision, the concision. It's a, it's a

derivative of the word for circumcision. It's actually like a Hebrew slander. It's not the full term of the true circumcision, what the word circumcision means. But it's a word that literally means the cutting off of the cutting off of circumcision was the removal of the foreskin of the penis. And it was a delicate surgery. It had to be done delicately. I mean, back then even, or the child would bleed to death. It had to be done a certain way.

And it was, it was a special procedure that the rabbis would do. And they had to know what they were doing. And it was, it was a precision type of a cutting. And Paul will refer to that in just a minute. And another word that he uses regarding circumcision down in verse four. But here he says, this is a concision. This is the cutting off. In other words, it's a reckless act. Instead of

trying to do just the circumcision the way it's supposed to be done, they're just cutting the whole thing off. They don't care. It's just reckless. They just want you to conform outwardly. It has nothing to do with the inward part of the heart. Just if you do these things outwardly, then it'll take care of your past. Again, Satan wants to put you and I through a lot of useless

garbage, brothers and sisters. Dealing with our past. And he uses this Judaizer effect on us. Some of you are even here today in church because you just know you need to get back with God. And, and, and in your coming, you're just doing something that you hope God will find favor in as you seek to try and deal with your past. You've, you've done some things, maybe terrible things this week and, and you know

they're wrong. And so it's like, you, you know, you've got to do something right now to help deal with that. And you can associate your outward act of coming to church. And you can associate your outward act of coming to church as a, as a means of seeking to deal with those things when God's already dealt with them in Christ on the cross. All of those, he knew what you were going to do

this past week. And he says in first John, if you simply confess your sins, if you confess, acknowledge that those things are wrong, confess him, confess those sins to him. He'll forgive you of your sins and purge you, cleanse you of that unrighteousness. It's there. It's already available. It's not anything you have to do. Yes, you should be sitting under the word with other believers,

but not seeking to do it in order to deal with something in your past. You see, Satan pushed the button. And Paul warns us about this. Verse three, he, here's the word he says, the dealing with the true circumcision, he said is for we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. We are the true circumcision. That

word true circumcision means to cut around. It's dealing with the delicate cutting, the proper cutting of circumcision, which Paul's already defined back in Romans chapter two. It's the circumcision of the heart. God doesn't want you to mutilate your body to come to him. God wants you to let the spirit cut away the things of the heart of the flesh that are there that have a grip on

you, the lusts and the greed, the ill feelings, the backbiting, the bitternesses, the anguishes. He wants you to let the spirit cut those things away and circumcise those things out of your heart so you can see his goodness and rejoice in him. That's a true circumcision. And Paul defines that three ways. He says, we who worship by the spirit of God is number one. And that implies

relationship. You don't come and you do certain things to be accepted by God. That's ritual. That leads to idolatry. We talked about that back in chapter one. We want to be involved in relationship. You don't crank out three chapters a day of reading because that's what you got to do is crank out three chapters a day. And I got to crank out 15 minutes of prayer because that's my

schedule. I got to do that. That's ritual. That's dead. That's the outward Judaistic means of trying to appease God. We read the word of God and we pray to have communion with him, to fellowship with him. The whole thing's based on relationship, not ritual, not conformity, some kind of outward kind of practice. And so he says, the true circumcision is we who worship by

the spirit of God. It implies the heart where the spirit of God moves into our hearts. And those are the worshipers that the father seeks, John 4. Are you seeking a relationship with him? Are you involved in that relationship with him? Or are you just cranking out Sundays and Wednesdays and three chapters a day? No, true circumcision, secondly, is who glory in Christ Jesus, who glory

in Christ Jesus. And the word glory there is in the present tense in the Greek, which means to constantly be glorying in the person. Of Christ, what he does, what he's doing. I'm glorying in that. He delivered me from this. He gave me wisdom in that. He surrounds me with his goodness in you. Your encouragement is from him. Your prayers are from him. I glory in his presence daily. And I need to learn that. You

need to learn that. That's the true circumcision, glorying in that relationship in the person of Christ. Your life is Christ and everything else is details. Thirdly, a third mark of the true circumcision is who put no confidence in the flesh, who put no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in methods, no confidence in practices, no confidence in personal abilities. Your confidence is in Christ. A lot of people look and they say, boy, I wish I

could talk and speak and teach the way you do. It's not me. And I don't say that with a feigned humility. If you knew me when speaking about the past, you'd be amazed that I'm doing this. This is not me. I don't rest in this. I don't go from something that I've done. I don't go from something Sunday to Sunday thinking, well, I wonder how I can marvel now in the wonderful word of God and

expound this to the people there. I go, God, I can't do this again. Everybody comes and says, boy, that was great. That really touched my heart. And I'm going, oh, Lord. I mean, I'm glad that God, it's not me. It's got to be you. And I've shared this before. G. Campbell Morgan, whenever he would ascend the steps to his pulpit, with each step, say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in

the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. So that he wouldn't think he was trusting in his own oratorical ability or his own faith. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the teaching skill. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing else. You are what you are and

you do what you do for the glory of God because he does it through you. And you don't trust in your own abilities and you don't trust in methods or in certain practices. Watch the ritual of some of these baseball players. And I step up to the plate. I've said, I've done this before. I don't mean to pick on baseball players. I love to play baseball. I got a hit last time. I did this. And

so I did this and spit on the ground that way. And I hold my bat just so. And I wear the same sticky shirt I wore last time, you know, and I haven't washed it yet. I'm trusting in a practice, in a method, in superstition. And you and I do that more than you think. You really do. You're into colors. You know that red intimidates, shows action and aggressiveness. So when you go to talk

to your boss, do you wear red, you know? Are you into that kind of stuff? There's a whole gamut of psychology that deals with all of that. How to, you know, put yourself forward this way with all of this to do that. That's trusting in a practice or a method. With glory in Christ, God's in control. God raises up. God puts down. God has where he has. Who he has, what he wants. And I follow that. Thirdly, who put no confidence in the flesh.

Who put no confidence in the flesh. That's the true circumcision. That's what I just said, isn't it? That's what we just dealt with. We worship by the spirit of God. We who glory in Christ Jesus. We who put no confidence in the flesh are the true circumcision. Now, just so that none of us would get the idea that, well, yeah, but you know, I've had a pretty decent life.

I mean, I've got things pretty well. I mean, I've been blessed and got some good things going here in my life. Paul kind of hesitates. If you're reading NIV, you notice a big line right there after verse three. Who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh. And then there's a line. That's a hesitation line. That's a pause line. That means while he

was writing that, he thought, and the spirit prompted him to write what was next. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence, he says. While he's writing that, the Holy Spirit prompted him to write this down because there will be somebody who would think that, well, maybe there are activities. Maybe I could just do things that were good enough. And some of you sitting here,

and I've mentioned that before, and it scares me to death. Some of you sitting here today are living your life. And your idea of salvation is I'm hopefully going to do enough good things that when I get to the end of my life, God's going to take all my good stuff and all my bad stuff and put them on a scale. And hopefully my good stuff will outweigh my bad stuff and I'll get to go to heaven. Some of you sitting here today are living your life like that. And that's

not how God wants you to live. He wants you to know that you're saved. He wants you to have the assurance of your salvation. He wants you to know where you're going. And he doesn't want you to depend on your efforts to get there or your efforts to deal with your past that way to get there. And just to clarify that, he uses Paul here. And Paul says, well, I know there's some people that

are going to think, yeah, but maybe my life, maybe if I just do enough good stuff and enough good ways, then maybe I'll please God and I'll deal with my past and I'll get accepted and I'll go to heaven. So Paul writes verses four through seven, because of anybody else that lived other than our Lord, there isn't anyone else who could have been considered as righteous as Paul. If anybody had a chance of doing it by the way of works, by allowing all of his good stuff to stack up and outweigh his bad, it's Paul. And so he lists it. He says, okay, if anybody thinks they have righteousness or can live in

the confidence of the good stuff that they do, I have more. If anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. And then he starts down this list to seven. And I'm going to go through this real quick, really, and we're going to close. Seven things that he lays out. First in verse five, he says, circumcise the eighth day, circumcise the eighth day.

He was perfect in the idea of the ritual of the covenant, in the idea of the very circumcision that the Judaizers are wanting everybody else to conform to. Paul was perfect in that. And in this, he emphasizes that he's not from Ishmael's line. Ishmael, if you read back in Genesis chapter 17, verse 25, when Abraham was circumcised, he circumcised his family, circumcised Ishmael. Ishmael was 13 years old when he was circumcised. And the Arabs,

the Muslims who down from the line of Ishmael are circumcised on the 13th day, not the eighth day. Only Isaac, who was the true son of the covenant, was circumcised on the eighth day. And to be circumcised on the eighth day was to mark the act of the covenant. And so, Paul is saying, I'm perfect in the idea of the covenant. I'm perfect in the idea of circumcision.

It also shows he wasn't a Gentile convert coming to Christ later in life. From the beginning, he was perfect. And he's building a case to show the Judaizers that it's not circumcision that saves. It's not the actions or your actions or activities that save or deal with your past. It's Christ who's dealt with it already. Secondly, he says of the people of Israel,

of the people of Israel. The word people there in the Greek is from the word genus or genealogy. Paul could literally pinpoint his Jewish heritage all the way back. He had a perfect lineage, in other words. And he's eliminated Ishmael in his first statement. He eliminates Esau here. He says, my lineage goes back through Jacob, not Esau. I'm not a mixed lineage. I'm

perfect in the race, perfect in the covenant. Then thirdly, he says of the tribe of Benjamin, of the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin and Joseph were the two beloved sons of Jacob. Benjamin was last born. Rachel died as a result of Benjamin's birth. And so, Jacob loved Benjamin. And so, Jacob loved Benjamin. And so, Jacob loved Benjamin. And so, Jacob loved Benjamin.

Because he reminded him so much of his wife that he loved. Benjamin was also the one, the tribe of Benjamin. When Solomon died and Solomon's son began ruling, Israel split into two separate nations, just like the United States did back in the 1860s. There were 10 of the tribes that followed the northern kingdom and two that stayed faithful in the south. And Benjamin was

one of them, Benjamin and Judah. And so, Paul, by saying of the tribe of Benjamin, emphasizes his faithfulness to God throughout all the trying times. Saul was also the first king of Israel, came from the tribe of Benjamin, was Paul's namesake. Paul was Saul before he became Paul. So, Paul is saying by that, I have the perfect lineage even down through the heritage of the kings and the proof of faithfulness is in my lineage. And not only am I

of the tribe of Benjamin, I am a Hebrew of Hebrews, he says fourthly. Again, this is emphasizing the purity of his line. There's no mixture in my lineage. There are no Gentiles in my lineage. Now, Jesus couldn't say that. I mean, his heritage through, I mean, we know he's perfect in the spirit of God, but his lineage that's traced for us in Matthew chapter one includes Rahab and Ruth,

not a perfect, pure lineage as Paul did. The Hebrew of Hebrews, the quality of his background. He also declares here by saying that, that he wasn't a Hellenistic Jew. When the great dispersion happened, the Jews were dispersed, taken by the Assyrians, taken by the Babylonians, scattered throughout the lands. Many settled in the areas around Greece, and they were absorbed

in the culture of the Jews. And so, Paul, by saying that, I have the perfect, pure lineage. of the Greeks. And they, even though they had a Jewish heritage, they were more Greek than Jew. They were the Hellenistic Jews. They were the ones that were there at the time of, in Acts chapter two, when Pentecost happened. And there was mainly the Hellenistic Jews that were

there visiting. They were all there, but there was a goodly bunch of Hellenistic Jews. They were considered crossbreeds, half-breeds. They weren't as, they were so immersed in the Greek culture, they had lost themselves. They'd lost their Hebrew culture. Paul says, I'm not that. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm a Hebrew of

Fifth, he says, in regard to the law, a Pharisee. Paul's life was committed to the law, committed to the upbringing of the law. He says he's a Pharisee. He was a careful student of the Torah, of the law of God. He was concerned with the meticulous keeping of the law as a Pharisee. In Acts chapter 23, verse six, he says, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. And the plural of Pharisees indicates

that not only is he a Pharisee and his father was a Pharisee, but that his father before him and his father before him were Pharisees. So he comes from a lineage of Pharisees that were more spiritually correct. They believed in the resurrection. They believed in the angels and all. They believed in all of these things. Paul says, I'm a Pharisee in regards to the law. Sixth,

he says, is for zeal, persecuting the church. You want to know whether or not I'm zealous in my faith and my heritage. Just look at what I did. I persecuted the church. And the word there, persecute, is in the present, which means I continually persecuted the church. In other words, he didn't go stand on a street corner one day for an hour, once a year with a sign that says,

I don't like the church and persecuted the church once a year, standing for what he believed. He was zealous in it. If he heard that there was a church over here, he went over there and he dragged those guys back to the courts, back to the dungeons to be put to death. He was trying to eliminate it. For him to live was the law. He's an example of that. As for the zeal, persecuting the church.

And seventh, he says, as for legalistic rights, righteousness, faultless. The word faultless there, it means blameless. It means without spot. So in other words, as far as laying out the tenets of the law itself in Paul's life, you couldn't charge him with anything outwardly. He did everything absolutely correct. It's only when he writes the book of Romans, well, the other places too, but when he writes the book of Romans,

he talks about the law and he shows that the law pointed out the fact of the sin of his heart. And he hadn't realized that before. He was trying to keep outwardly the things that outwardly seemed to be what God wanted him to do. He didn't realize that. It was the heart. It was the thoughts in my heart that condemned me. But Paul lays it all out. And he says, if there's anybody else who thinks they can do all these good things and make it and

be accepted by God and deal with their past, I'm better. I've got it better than you. If there's anybody sitting here this morning that thinks that, that thinks, well, I'm going to do good things and God's going to receive me. Realize that Paul's already done it best. And he's come to this conclusion. Verse seven, whatever was to my profit. In other words, whatever I could do

that way, whatever I thought I could do that would come to me. I'm better than you. I'm better than you. That would cause gain for me. That would deal with my past. That would be acceptable to God to help me. Whereas salvation was concerned. He said, I consider loss for the sake of Christ. I consider loss for the sake of Christ. That word for consider loss means to literally make a mental

decision regarding all of the value of these things, all of the value of your past, both good and bad. And the word literally loss means to forfeit, to forfeit. That doesn't have anything to do with forget right now. It will in a minute. But first thing you have to do is forget. You have to do is forfeit your past. Forfeit your past. What does that mean? What does it mean to

forfeit? If you're two teams, if you're a team and you're supposed to meet another team and the other team doesn't come, what happens? You forfeit. No contest, right? It's over before it starts. I don't have to play. As you're sitting here this morning and you've got a past that's full of abuse, that's full of the bad things, that's full of the poverty, that's full of the neglect, that's full of being

used and abused and stomped on. The first thing you need to do right now is say, I forfeit that. I'm not even gonna play. I'm not gonna play with that at all. I'm not gonna mess with it. I'm not gonna think about it. I'm just, I forfeit. It's there. I forfeit it. I just leave it alone. We're not dealing with forgetting yet. You're just forfeiting. You don't have to battle that anymore.

It's no game. It's no contest. You don't have to play. Jesus played that on a cross. That was dumped on him on the cross. And when he bled and when he died, your past was gone. He doesn't even consider it anymore. It's gone. You need to forfeit it. I don't play. Satan brings it up, says, yeah, but remember when you said, I'm not playing. I'm not gonna play that. I don't play that game. I've already forfeited that. It's

gone. Galatians chapter six, verse 15, Paul says, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation. You aren't turning over a new leaf today. You aren't making a fresh start. You're brand new. Paul wrote in second Corinthians chapter five, that you have become a new creation. The old is gone. The new is come. You're new. Forfeit the past. When Satan

starts to throw it up at you, don't play the game. Don't sit there and let your mind go back through all those conversations and all those hurts and all those sights and smells and sounds and abuses and all that. Don't play the game. Forfeit. I forfeit. That's gone. It's over. I don't have to play that game anymore. For the sake of knowing Christ, he says, and he's going to expound on that when we get into learning to live in the

present in verse eight. And he's really going to have, he has a name for your past and for all of the things of your past. And down in verse eight, he says, I consider them rubbish that I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to play. I'm not going to

A word for rubbish there is dung and it's the slang word for dung. All of that stuff is dung. It's over. I forfeit. All I want to do is know Christ. For me to live is Christ. Everything else is details. Let's stand together. Living in the past is only going to stifle your growth. Living in the past is only going to stifle your growth and it will hinder your joy.

God doesn't want you to live in the past. The thing that he wants you to remember about the past is that it was nailed to the cross. You don't have to play. It's forfeited. Game over. Jesus won. Father, help us to learn to deal with our past in that way, not to play the game and say,