Sermon Cloud

Christ, The Solid Rock 

Philippians 3:1-11

“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.  Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”
 
       
The people of God are marked by Three things

 
  1. We Worship by the Spirit of God.
    What does that mean?  
    - Our worship is fully from the heart.  It’s not hindered by physical conditions. Paul was saying “We don’t ask, is the flesh of the worshiper circumcised or uncircumcised?”  And just like Paul, we don’t place physical considerations on the worshiper.  We would never tell a paraplegic that they couldn’t worship because of their inability to stand.  We wouldn’t tell a person that they can’t worship God because they only speak German.  Our worship is of the spirit, it comes from the heart, not from the body.  For centuries people have argued over     this, and they still are.  Take the holy land for example.  The Jews worship at the wailing wall because it’s the closest place of worship to the temple mount, but the Muslims worship there because the dome of the rock is there.  Whole wars have broken out because of people who believe in the physical limitations of worship.      But we know that we can worship in our homes, in our cars, at our workplaces, in our church building, or taking a walk in the woods.  If our church building were to burn down tomorrow, we wouldn’t stop worshiping God (at least I hope not, if we did then maybe we would need to seriously evaluate what it was we are worshipping)  If this sound system gave out right now, I hope that we would still stay and worship because we Worship by the Spirit, not by the flesh.  

 
  2. We glory in Christ Jesus
      We rely entirely on the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Look at what Paul says in Galatians “But far be it for me to glory, except in the cross of Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified to me and I to the world.”  Glorying in the cross means that you believe the words of this old Hymn “My hope is build on     nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.  I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.  On Christ the solid rock, I stand;  All other ground is sinking sand.”  This is what it means to glory in Christ.  I stand on Christ alone.  Not on my own ability.  Not on my own strength, for I have none,     but on who Christ is and what he has done.

    So true people of God worship him from the heart, in Spirit.  And true people of God, glory in Christ.  They rely on His work completely.

Lastly

  3. We put no confidence in the flesh.  
    This is a negative repetition of what was already said; we place our confidence in     Christ, we have no confidence in our flesh.  You can’t have both.  Any confidence     in the flesh is a denial of your confidence in Christ, and likewise, any confidence     in Christ is a denial of the confidence of your flesh.  But what is the definition of     “flesh?”  Is it just our actual flesh, does it mean to actually put confidence in our     own physical ability to lift things?  No!  Paul is using the term flesh to cover     anything apart from Christ on which we might base our hope of salvation on.      Flesh= anything apart from Jesus that we might put our hope of salvation on.      Putting confidence in the flesh is like putting our hope in having attended church     your whole life, or on your monthly tithing, or on how good you have treated     people your whole life.   It’s also fitting that Paul would use this term to repudiate     the actual mutilation of the flesh that the Judaizers were placing such emphasis     on, namely circumcision.  

This can be summed up by a simple equation.  
Jesus + Anything  = NOTHING

 

-  So Paul has given us three qualifications of the true people of God.  First, they worship by the Spirit, meaning their worship is not confined to physical limitations, they glory in Christ Jesus, fully relying on the person and work of Christ for salvation, and they put not confidence in the flesh, denying that they have the ability to save themselves.

- As we read on it’s as if Paul is egging the Judaizers on.
He stops speaking about the “people of God” and begins to talk about himself as one of God’s true servants.  He says, “though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else (you Judaizers)  thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.”
 
It’s as if Paul is saying, “So you want to play this way? Fine, but don’t cry, ‘cause I’m about to beat you at your own game.”

- So lets look at the list

    - Circumcised on the eighth day.
   
Paul mentions this because this is the absolute must for the Judaizers.  But Paul puts an added plus to it, He says “I’m an eighth day-er.”  This was the strict requirement of the law.  Isaac was circumcised on the eighth day, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day…but the best part is that while all of Judaizers where circumcised, many of them were probably not circumcised on the eighth day, as Judaizers were made up of Gentile Converts that were claiming to follow Jesus and maintain the law.  So in saying this, Paul narrows a large portion of the field.  Saying this is like a punch in the face.  Paul is bragging, and since he’s playing by their rules, he has the right to!
 

    - Of the People of Israel.  
 
Paul’s parents weren’t from mixed stock, like so many Jews in Palestine at the time.  With the Greek and Roman Empires spreading the world out, there was a lot of intermarriage, even among Jews.   Paul was a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who was later renamed Israel).  This must have narrowed the field even more.
 

    - Of the tribe of Benjamin.  
 
The Benjamites were Israel’s elite tribe, its highest aristocracy.  The tribe of Benjamin is also unique because they had a history of always remaining loyal to the Davidic dynasty.  But if you look back to the history of Israel we see the 12 sons of Jacob that made up the 12 tribes.  Benjamin was not only a son of Jacob, but also a son of Jacob’s most favored wife.  The tribe of Benjamin together with Judah formed Israel reconstituted, and after the return from captivity, Israel Restored, and was God’s chief agent in bringing forth Israel Delivered.  Being a Benjamite made Paul a most authentic Israelite.  And because of all this he calls himself, the next on the list.
 
    
     - A Hebrew of Hebrews. 

Purest of the pure.  Now he’s just rubbing it in.  “How do you like them apples!”
 
 
Paul moves off of the topic of his lineage and moves on to his personal life.

    - As to the law, a Pharisee.
 
 Paul was not only a Pharisee, but a son of Pharisees.  From the way that Jesus talked about and to the Pharisees, we often associate Pharisees right up there with fender benders and taxes.  But the Pharisees weren’t all that bad.  The History:  Alexander the Great conquers the known world by age 25.  Greek culture spreads throughout the whole world.  This movement was called Hellenization.  The Greeks were missionaries of sorts, not promoting the gospel, but promoting humanism.  The belief that life is about developing the full potential of the human body and mind, that this could be their salvation of sorts.  It was this very pressure that caused a resistance to break out.  A significant number of Jews refused to be converted to this way of life.  They were later called Pharisees.  Here is what Euguene Peterson says about them, “The Pharisees preserved and reinforced uncompromised Jewish identity that the Greeks were determined to wipe out against cultural and political forces both within and without.  The Pharisees were incredibly courageous and fiercely devout.  Pharisees were Jews at their passionate and loyal best.”
 

    - As to zeal persecuting the church.  
 
Paul persecuted the early church because of his dedication to the law.  If persecuting zeal could ever have opened the gates of heaven, Paul would have walked right in. Now he’s rubbing it in their faces, where most of the Judaizers were just propagandists,  Paul was so dedicated that he killed people over it.  
 

    - As to legal righteousness having become blameless.
 

  Paul had been so strict in his obedience that he was claiming that you wouldn’t find a single fault in his outward conduct.  What Judaizer is going to be able to top this list!

But this isn’t what Paul is proud about.  At one time it was everything to Paul.  But one day on a road to Damascus, on his way to persecute more Christians, an amazing thing happened that changed his life.  Jesus himself came down and met Paul and in a moment Paul saw himself as he really was, a deluded, self-righteous, damnable sinner.   Everything that was precious to Paul, his genuine ancenstry, his noble birth, his orthodox belief, and his spotless conduct, all in a moment became useless…and not just useless, but harmful.   

 - But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
 
Paul isn’t saying that a heritage and a solid belief and obedience are bad things.  But when these privileges begin to be viewed as a basis for self-satisfaction and self-glorification, when they are seen as a ticket t heaven, they are no longer good.  And so Paul takes all these individual gains and heaps them together as one big loss, one big (albeit decent) attempt at winning salvation through the flesh.  Now these things that were seen as pluses don’t only take Paul to Zero, but into the negatives.  

 

- Just as Paul realized he couldn’t lean on his qualifications, we should never lean on things like being born in a Christian home, receiving good education, having a lot of money, being beautiful, physical strength.  None of these things are worth building our hope for eternity on.  

- But the real danger isn’t just in building a false hope.  The real danger is that trust in these things deprive us of what we really want to gain, Christ.  Just as Paul says,
 
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord For his sake I have suffered the loss of al things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him”

- “So there you have it, I still think all that stuff I can bring is pretty much dog dung compared to gaining Christ and being found “in him.”  Paul makes it clear that as along as we keep clinging, even in the slightest degree to our own righteousness, we cannot fully enjoy Christ.  Being found “in Him” is simple.  When God looks at us we are virtually hidden inside of Christ.  So that which is seen is not our own fleshly shortcomings and sinfulness, but the very righteousness of Christ, and this righteousness is seen as our own.  What does this mean?

    - It means that we can stand up to any accusations of Judgment
    - It means that we have reconciliation with God.  We are restored to God
    - It means that we have forgiveness for our sin
    - It means that we are in compliance with the whole law of God.
  
“And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

After all this is said and done I have no righteousness of my own.  All of that supposed “righteousness” that you saw was just junk.  The only righteousness I have comes from being in Christ, comes through God and depends on faith.  II Corinthians 5:18-19 says, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”  All that I have to give credit to is Christ.  It was all God, and it was all gift, I didn’t earn any of it.  Even the faith I have in Christ is a gift, “For by grace you have been saved through fatih and this is not of yourself, but is a gift of God, so that no one should boast.”  

- See?  We can’t even boast of our faith in Jesus.  

- Paul says, “I’m upgrading, from the shabby performance that I can muster up by trying to obey the law, to a beautiful, complete, and perfect righteousness that I have in Christ.

And we end by singing the words of this Hymn 

"When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh may I then in Him be found.  Dressed in his righteousnes alone, faultless to stand before the throne.  On Christ the Solid Rock I stand!  All other ground is sinking sand!"