Confidence
Philippians • Sermon • Submitted
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12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.
21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.
22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Deuteronomy
Prayer
Introduction
When I was a kid, there was a football player for the Detroit Lions named Barry Sanders. The guy was amazing. He was literally one of the best running backs of all time. He was poised to break virtually every record there was for a running back when suddenly while healthy, he retired seemingly out of the blue. People were shocked. No one could understand why a guy who was at the top of his game would suddenly quit. Sanders was at the pinnacle, and he considered as nothing. Barry really has never explained his reasoning for retiring when he did, but in our passage today we will see how Paul who was at his own pinnacle and considered it as nothing.
Scripture
Our passage this morning is . If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition of how precious of a gift it is. says,
1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
4 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:
5 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;
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
“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.”
Thank you, you may be seated.
Sermon
In the movie, “The Princess Bride”, there is a scene where one character is attempting to catch a group of other characters. As he is doing this, he has to overcome a series of obstacles and difficulties that he should not be able to do. The group who he is chasing has one character who keeps saying, “Inconceivable” after the main character overcomes each of the obstacles. After the third or fourth “Inconceivable”, another character named Inigo Montoya says, “You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.”
In a similar way, I grew up in Baptist churches and I have sat through many sermons where the pastor said, “in closing” or “finally” 30 minutes before he finally closed. At some point I started thinking, “You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.”
So, when we look at our passage this morning, we see this word “Finally”. You might notice that the word is situated pretty much in the middle of the letter to the Philippians – Hardly the end. Naturally I started to wonder if Paul was in fact a Southern Baptist pastor who like those of my youth would claim to be closing, but were really just getting warmed up.
Ultimately, I discovered that Paul was not attempting to close his letter or impart some last minute piece of wisdom in the middle of it. Instead, what is going on here is quite subtle and hard to notice to you and me because we are not the original recipients.
In the ancient, Greek-speaking world, there were certain conventions within letter writing. We have certain conventions as well, but theirs were different and more complex. Without going into too much detail and boring you to death, what Paul is using here is actually a well known convention called an “epistolary hesitation formula.” The main point I am trying to make by telling you all this is that Paul is not seeking to close his letter or to give the Philippians one last piece of information. What the Hesitation formula does is marks a change in topic.
There is a little more to it than that, but suffice it to say, Paul is not winding down his letter, but instead is simply changing gears to help the Philippians see more clearly the glory of Christ.
Paul does, in fact, change gears. And the change can seem somewhat abrupt. Paul goes from speaking highly of Timothy and Epaphroditus – telling the Philippians to honor such men and switches pretty quickly to name calling and derision.
But again, we shouldn’t get too distracted by that because the change is not really so drastic. Throughout the book of Philippians, Paul has used comparisons as examples to make his point. For one example, look at where some preach motivated by love and others motivated by their own selfish ambition. This is a common way of making his point in this letter and it is what he is doing here. Honor such men in 1:29, watch out for these other people. The dogs and evildoers etc.
Paul is transitioning to a very serious and important warning about the influence of a bunch of dirty dogs. Let’s take a second to understand who these folks are that Paul is adamant the Philippians look out for. In one word, they are Judaizers. Paul doesn’t actually use that name, but the picture he paints makes it clear that is who these people are. Basically the Judaizers were a group of professing believers – I say professing because some of the consequences of their views makes it doubtful if they were actually true believers – they were professing believers who taught the Gentile believers that to truly be right with God, they had to not only believe in Christ the Jewish Messiah, but they also had to become Jewish and practice the Jewish customs and laws specifically circumcision.
In the Jewish world and in Jewish thought, non-Jews were considered inferior. The Jews often compared Gentiles to dogs. To understand that, you have to know that for a Jew, a dog is one of the most filthy and unclean animals there are. Think wild, carcass eating, vomit returning, fur matted, flea ridden, snarling walking bags of filth. Not exactly our cuddly Fido. That is how the Jews viewed dogs – and honestly how they viewed Gentiles.
Paul is taking that incredible insult that the Jews typically use of Gentiles and putting it on the Jewish Judaizers. They are the real dogs. The Jews like to believe that they are righteous because of their relation to Abraham, but Paul calls them the evildoers. Again, The Jews often made a point of how wicked the Gentiles were, but here Paul is putting it on the Judaizers. And then to top it all off, he calls them mutilators of the flesh.
This is a real shot across the bow. Jews put great stock in circumcision because it was the sign of the covenant. It marked them out as “God’s people”. Paul here calls it nothing but mutilation of the flesh. In other words, it has no bearing. In fact, to really understand this point, Paul is not just saying it isn’t helpful, he’s saying it is no better than pagan worship practices where priests would mutilate themselves and sometimes even emasculate themselves for their false gods.
Watch out for those dirty dogs who would have you believe that you need to become a Jew so that you can fully come to Christ.
These next two points on the outline: New Covenant Confidence vs. Old Covenant Circumcision are really closely connected, so we will kinda jump back and forth between the two and compare and contrast.
What Paul does in verse 3 is truly astounding. He says, we are the circumcision. The Jews put so much stock in circumcision that they often called themselves “the circumcision”. Again, it was a claim to be the people of God. Paul even takes that away from the Judaizers and says that “we” – himself and those he is writing to who are largely Gentiles – we are really the people of God. Paul takes all the pejoratives and mean names the Jews called the Gentiles and places it on the Judaizers and takes the proud title of “the circumcision” and applies it to people who aren’t physically circumcised.
So, who are the real people of God? Those who worship God in the Spirit, who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh. The true and real people of God are not those who are circumcised in the flesh, but are those who are circumcised of heart. In Paul makes that clear where he says,
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.”
We saw earlier in our Scripture reading from – specifically verse 16 that there has always been a concern with circumcision of the heart.
16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
Or look at which says,
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
We also see this in which says,
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
Paul really sums up his point in saying,
28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”
You see, the Judaizers would have the Gentiles put trust and confidence in the old covenant signs, when really the only boasting and confidence is in Jesus Christ. Again, the people of God glory in Christ. The people of God worship in the Spirit. The people of God put no confidence in the flesh.
Then Paul decides he is going to out Jew the Judaizers. If anyone should be confident in the flesh, its Paul! All of Paul’s points here are actually really important to his overall argument. He isn’t merely listing his bona-fides. He starts with circumcision – on the 8th day as the law demands. Any Gentile who listened to the Judaizers would never be able to say that.
The general argument of the Judaizers is that the Gentiles need to become more pure, more clean – in essence that is their claim. They are unclean Gentiles now, but they must become clean and pure according to Jewish Law by becoming Jews – only then can they truly be right with God through Christ. Paul is having none of it because it is obvious that this position denigrates and lessens the completed and perfect work of Christ. Christ isn’t enough – you have to do this and that to actually be in right standing with God. Yikes!
So even if a Gentile believer bought into the Judaizer’s lies, they would never be able to be as ritually pure as Paul because he was circumcised on the 8th day and they much later. That’s how Paul’s list works here. He is from the people of Israel – literally his genealogy is from Abraham. No Gentile will ever be able to say that and so still would not be as “pure” as Paul.
Tribe of Benjamin – Paul can trace his genealogy back to one of the more important tribes. The only tribe that stayed with Judah when Israel divided into two kingdoms. Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews – that is he spoke and knew the Hebrew tongue. He had not become Hellenized like many Jews born outside of Israel. He kept the law strictly as a Pharisee – in fact he loved the law and the purity that went with it. So much so that he had a zeal for it. He persecuted the church to protect the purity of Israel from those Christians.
He was blameless under the law. Now that doesn’t mean that Paul was claiming to be sinless, one would be considered blameless under the law if they properly worshipped and utilized the sacrificial system to atone for their sins. Paul is not saying that he was sinless, but that he lived under the law blamelessly – he properly atoned for his sins under the law.
Why does all this matter. Because no Gentile could ever attain such a high standard. No Gentile could ever hope to be as pure as Paul. Even most of the Judaizers could not claim what Paul did here. The point here is this: The Judaizers were trying to convince people to draw closer to God through fleshly means, but the reality is that they themselves couldn’t hope to attain the level of “closeness” that Paul had and the Gentiles far less.
Obviously, Paul’s point here is that that isn’t how a person draws near to God, but even if it was, you’d be without hope. You would never be able to attain the level of righteousness of Paul. Paul is begging the Philippians to make sure their confidence in in Christ – in the New Covenant – not in the Old Covenant circumcision. Because all of that Old Covenant stuff counts as nothing – even to Paul we will see that clearly next week.
So what do we do with all of this. We are not fighting Judaizers. We are not in this day and age being tempted to become Jews before we can come to Christ. How does this apply to you and me today?
I think it is very applicable. In fact it touches on so many different things. As a church, where are we putting our confidence? Is it Christ or something else? Maybe attendance numbers. Maybe stylistic preferences? Maybe we place our confidence in doing things the way we’ve always done them. Or maybe it’s the opposite. We put hope in new things novel approaches.
What about in our own lives with regard to our salvation? Where do we place our hope – our confidence? Do we place it in our good deeds? Maybe we have confidence because we give a lot of our time or our money. Maybe we have confidence because we are or have been teachers or leaders. Maybe our confidence is in our pedigree – my parents were missionaries, so I’m good to go – or something like that. I fear that sometimes people place their confidence in good and important things like their baptism, or they look back and put confidence in the sinner’s prayer they prayed as a child.
Let me be clear, none of those things are where we put our confidence. We are the circumcision who do not put our confidence in the flesh – in external things. Our confidence is in Christ alone. We worship Him in Spirit and we glory in our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else is filthy rags.
Conclusion
If you are here this morning and you do not have confidence in Christ alone, I pray that you will place your hope and trust in Christ. Repent of your sin and of trusting in external things. No amount of good deeds can save you. No genealogy or keeping of the rules can put you in right standing with God. Only in repenting and trusting Christ alone can you be truly pure and in right standing with God Almighty.
Believers, sometimes we are like the Philippians and can be tempted to trust in things that are really nothing but dust. We must watch out for those filthy, dogged temptations. Where we have failed in that area – where we have started to believe that Christ is not enough – let us repent of that. Let us look to Christ as more than enough. We must reject the sinful notion that we can add to Christ’s perfections. Let us glory in Christ this morning as we transition to a time of worship through response.
In a moment I will pray and then we will worship Christ in response to His Word. There are only two responses possible when people hear the Word of God. Rebellion and Worship. Please don’t continue in rebellion. Worship – glory in Christ even now. I will be on the front row worshipping with you. If you need someone to talk to or pray with, I’d be happy to do that, just come on up and get me. The front is always opened if you’d like to pray up here as well. Whatever you do, glory in Christ and worship in the Spirit of God. Let’s pray.