• Verse 3

 

• Just finished looking at Paul's warning...those who would seek to pervert the glorious, simple gospel of Jesus Christ >> by laying some trip on you...

 

• verse 3 he identifies who he is talking about. 

 

• The Old Covenant rite of circumcision was given in Genesis 17:9-10 God said to Abraham “this is My covenant which you shall keep, that every man child among you should be circumcised.”

 

• Physical circumcision was a sign of the old covenant and we read in Galatians 5:3 that “every man that is circumcised is a debtor to the whole law.”

 

 

• So Paul says, we are the circumcision but we worship God in the Spirit, and we rejoice in Jesus Christ...why? Because Christ has fulfilled the law...the law by which through the rite of circumcision, we are a debtor to...you see our debt, the debt > paid!

 

• Turn over to Romans Chp 5 (v 12 – end)  - now look at Romans 4:1-12

 

• And so we see what Paul is saying here back in Philippians...

 

• This must have enraged the Sanhedrin to learn of this writing.  This must have shocked the Jews as they read this aloud in the churches!  How offensive it is to hear, “your whole life, following this and doing that and taking great care to not do this....it’s not good enough...” 

 

• Still today is very offensive.  The gospel of Christ is offensive to the world...the gospel brings the good news that the Savior has overcome, but also brings the truth that man alone cannot.

 

• And so offense...as one says, “oh so you think you're better than me?” - well no that's not what I said....but you see that is what they hear....why? (flesh trusters)

 

• Well Paul continues...we have no confidence in the flesh.

 

• Just like the Sanhedrin, the world and even Christians sometimes have this idea that  you know, I'm an ok person.  I mean I'm not as bad as this guy....or hey I do this good deed and you know that's because basically my heart is good....all of that is confidence in the flesh...all of that cries out I'm good enough God...I'm as good as You and it is the oldest form of blasphemy. (no one calls out “justice!” no the call is always “mercy”)

 

• Paul says we are of the spiritual circumcision...our hearts have been cut, sliced, broken by the truth...by the fact that man is not basically good, that man all together is unprofitable...

 

• But God in His goodness has offered His only Son there on the cross to be a propitiation for our sins!  And therefore, since we embrace the truth...personal brokenness, and we accept the Lord Jesus, calling out to Him for salvation, and since we have received the Holy Spirit being born again through the Holy Spirit coming into us and revealing to us Jesus Christ...we now no longer live on in the strength of our flesh...we can't...we know the truth now...

 

• and so we rejoice in Jesus Christ, and count our flesh, our life apart from Jesus...bankrupt.  This is the natural and reasonable reaction of one who has come to know the truth.

 

• Paul continues...Verses 4-9

 

• 30 years after the road to Damascus...he's not talking about those thirty years...he's talking about the years before his encounter with Jesus.  He calls it “the past.”

 

• The only way we can call the past, “the past”, is if we don't continue in those ways.

 

• Many get saved and sort of continue in their routines...not really living for Christ and tragically, even having the Holy Spirit, even having salvation, many continue to add lost years to what they will one day call “the past.”  If this is you then you are no doubt encumbered, hindered, stalled in a state of spiritual infancy and missing out....(runners and wrestlers)

 

• Paul says he counts his past as all loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus...why?

 

• Because Saul of Tarsus in all his power, prestige and prowess was an empty, sad shell of a man. 

 

• His genealogy, his education, his knowledge of the law, his ceremonial way of life brought him no comfort, no joy, but now he knows joy.  Why?
• Because he has tasted living water...once your thirst is primarily satisfied...you catch a glimpse of the eternal God's glory, love, righteousness and power, everything else is....well as Paul goes on to say...rubbish...just junk.

 

• Paul came to the point where he opened his ledger book.  He looked at what he had accumulated by inheritance...I mean he was a pure blood Jew which meant he was special...

 

• He had been circumcised on the 8^th day which meant he wasn't a proselyte (circumcised later in life), not an Ishmaelite (circumcised when he was 13 yrs old) he was a pure blood Jew.

 

• He was of the tribe of Benjamin and if you recall, when the civil war came that divided Judah from Israel after the death of Solomon, the tribe of Benjamin was the only tribe that remained in the south alongside the tribe of Judah.

 

• The Northern tribes separated from God's revealed religion and set up schismatic altars where blood sacrifices were performed in direct violation of Leviticus 17 where it says that sacrifices were only to be offered at the great altar in Jerusalem. 

 

• Paul took pride in that he was from the tribe that stayed pure and true to God's commandments regarding religion.....

 

• By inheritance, Paul was tip top notch and as he continued to look at his ledger book he added those things that he had accumulated by his efforts...
• He had become a Pharisee.  The Pharisees were looked upon as the most faithful in that culture. 

 

• Paul writes that he was blameless where the law was concerned.  Moreover, his zeal was world renowned.  A real list of assets from a human point of view. 

 

• But the day came when he peered into his ledger book in light of truth and with the revealed eyes of a righteous God and saw these things as they truly are...nothing but filthy rags.  That's the work of God in the human heart. The revealing to us that Christ is our one sufficient asset.
• Oh it’s not that we desire or decide to seek after filthy rags, it’s simply that we have an inherited inability to produce righteousness apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  A little leaven, leavens the whole loaf.  I am not a sinner because I sin, I sin because I am a sinner.

 

• Paul knew prestige.  Paul knew honor. But Paul also knew the truth...and the truth set him free from his worthless toil...his failing efforts in producing not goodness, but refuse.

 

• Paul closes with verses 10-11

 

• He simply says...that I may know Him...fellowship with Him and be more like Him.  Why?  (Acts 8.1 > Romans 8.1)

 

• He doesn't deserve to be forgiven.  He doesn't deserve to be used.  He doesn't deserve to be called.  But all these through grace...he has tasted rest and he has tasted God's goodness, release, love, joy...those things which our hearts truly long for but never find apart from the Lord.  And so he trades his ashes in for beauty and now, being born again by the spirit, is truly alive!

 

• And you also, take no confidence in the flesh...cast out pride!  The end of pride is always shipwreck!  To be found in His righteousness, oh the abundant life Jesus came to provide...that is to be found in Him!

 

• The power of Christ's resurrection...death has no hold, sin has no power!  All that we have heaped up, cast away...but understand...the resurrected life always follows the crucified life.
• Your flesh flees suffering.  Our nature is to reject suffering.  Peter said to Jesus as He spoke of suffering, Lord let it now be so...and Jesus likened him to Satan.  Why?

 

• Because God's will and Jesus' purpose was to go to the cross so that you will never have to taste the wrath of a just and holy God.  You will never know the power of the resurrected life until the flesh is crucified...until you know the fellowship of suffering.

 

• Paul says, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection...we must filter this with Paul's other epistles.  Paul is sure of his salvation.  That is not what he's talking about...this may also be translated as arrive!!  Blessed are those that love the coming of the Lord!

 

• Keep your eyes up!  Take no confidence in the flesh but pursue that which is profitable, that which satisfies.  Press in!  Get after it! Time is short and God desires to use you but how useless we are, when we are focused on ourselves.