Sermon Tone Analysis

I have been reading a book about joy in sorrow and suffering.

In this book there is a story told about a young lady who loses her husband to an overdose of pills.

Not even a year later her 4 year old son comes down with cancer.

This young woman experienced tremendous sorrow.

However, during this time she leaned totally on Jesus.

She wrote this, “My husband was not my Savior.

And life is not found in my family.

It is found in Jesus alone.

I am continuing to learn to go to the word of God for truth and strength when my flesh wants to cling to earthly things.”

Over the last few years I have seen in my counseling that so many people when a crisis happens think that without __________________ fill in the blank my life cannot go on.

Without my job I can’t go on.

My marriage is failing so I can’t continue in this life.

If I just had more money, or some money, or better whatever than my life would be worth living.

Let me ask you this morning, is Jesus enough?

For some of you today it is Jesus plus whatever.

I think that it can be so easy for us to get caught up in the things of this world.

Not only can we become wrapped up in the tangible things that we can see, but we can also become consumed with the intangibles like our reputation, our fame, or achievements.

Paul took some time to address this huge issue and he writes about the things we need to leave behind and the things that were a gain to him.

Today we can stand safely, securely, and confidently before God because of the work that Jesus has done for us.

1. Confidence in self-righteousness is not enough!

Philippians 3:4 (ESV)

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:

Where is you confidence today?

In what are you trusting?

So many of us if not careful can trust in some false saviors.

Over and over again in the New Testament we see that the Judaizers went about bragging about their credentials.

Here in the beginning of chapter 3 Paul now chimes in as if to say, “hey guys if you want to brag, I can brag even more.”

However, the point in Paul saying these things was to point out the self-righteousness is not enough.

All of Paul’s former achievements were filth.

The first 4 things that Paul talks about here are things Paul was born into.

The last 3 things that he addresses have to do with his personal accomplishments.

Let’s take a look.

A. Don’t put your confidence in any type of spiritual ritual!

Paul was circumcised on the 8th day after he was born.

What this tells us is that Paul was not a convert, a Gentile converting over to a Jew.

He had a pure lineage.

This was a very big deal for Jewish people.

There are many people today who put all their confidence into a special event that happened.

I go to church so therefore I must be a Christian.

Or i grew up in church.

I have been baptized or I went to a revival one time.

These are all things that we do.

Salvation is becoming a new creation in Christ it is not about going through a special or certain ritual.

We can’t add anything to the work of Jesus.

It is through faith alone in Christ alone.

B. Our confidence is not in our ethnicity?

Paul was born into a Jewish family of the people of Israel.

He was a physical descendent of Abraham, but again this is not what saves us.

Just like being born in American or being a Texan or my dad is a pastor or Christian so that must make me a Christian as well.

C. Confidence is not about our rank.

Paul tells us here that he was from the tribe of Benjamin.

This tribe was more elite than some of the other tribes.

For one, when the land was being divided the tribe of Benjamin was given the portion where Jerusalem was.

This was a big deal.

Also, when the Kingdoms split up and there was a northern tribe and a southern tribe, Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to David and became part of the southern kingdom, while the other 8 tribes left.

Again this was a big deal to Jewish people.

And the point that Paul could still trace his ancestry back to Benjamin was important.

After the dispersion many Jewish people were unable to know exactly what tribe they came from.

Paul understood that no matter what he was born into or what his background was this did not save him.

D. Don’t put your confidence in a tradition.

Paul calls himself a Hebrew of Hebrews here.

Paul’s parents were both Hebrews and even thought he did not grow up in Israel (he was from Tarsus of Cilicia, Acts 22:3) we know that he knew another culture and language but he still spoke Aramaic which was his native tongue.

He never wondered away from his Jewish roots.

So, a tradition could be a family tradition or even a spiritual tradition.

Like being a Baptist or Methodist, or coming from a really good moral family.

None of these things make any of us a Christian.

Do you personally have faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ?

If God today stripped everything away from your life.

Like your family, your job, your home, your vehicle would God be enough?

Or are you trusting in all of these things to get you through life?

Let’s take a look at these last 3 things that Paul talks about.

These are things that Paul had accomplished.

E. Don’t put your confidence in a works type of righteousness.

When it comes to perfectly obeying all the laws and rules we all fall short.

What I mean by this statement is that rule keeping doesn’t alone merit our salvation.

Being a really good moral person doesn’t mean we are saved.

We must have faith in what Christ has done for us.

Only through Christ’s sinless life, his death and resurrection could we be saved.

Christ desires for us to be obedient but that is not what saves us alone.

F. Our confidence does not come through our passion!

People are passionate and sincere about a lot of things.

Today people are passionate about social justice issues.

They are passionate about politics or their favorite sports team.

I see people fired up about many things.

But passionate people can be wrong.

Salvation has nothing to do with our passion, but everything to do with God’s passion for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection we can have salvation through faith in Him alone.

We so desperately need Jesus and our confidence must be in Him alone.

Nothing else can save us!

So how can we know Christ?

We have talked about what our confidence should not be in, but now Paul moves to show us what we should trust in and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Confidence in Christ’s perfect righteousness through faith in Him is enough!

But, what exactly does this mean or look like?

Paul uses the word gain here in verse 7.

This is a Greek word and is used as an accounting term for profit or to benefit from.

Paul is saying there is no gain from the above things mentioned.

In fact, all of this is a loss for the sake of knowing Jesus.

The Greek word for loss here is also an accounting term, used to describe a business loss.

So, Paul is doing this to help us see that there is a transaction that happens here but it’s not about business, but spiritually because Christ redeems us as His children when we place our faith in Him.