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Chapter 3. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you, to me, indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Beware of dog, beware of evil workers, beware of the concession, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath, whereof he might trust in the flesh.
I am more.
Circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
Ye doubtless knockout all things, but lost with the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to account them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in him.
Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, for that we through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, they made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained either. Already perfect.
But I follow after it, that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I'd do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, where to have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk. So do you have us for an example for many walk of whom I've told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Who has ended destruction, whose God is our belly, and whose glory is in their shame?
Who mind earthly things? For our conversation is in heaven. For whence also we look for the Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ, who should change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
We've been reminded.
That this epistle.
Brings before us normal Christian living.
The normal Christian life. And that's why we have Christ brought before us.
In all three, in all four chapters, in a little different aspect, but that is what the Christian life is, is Christ.
Christ.
And without the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no Christian life.
But when we have the Lord Jesus Christ, we have life, and that is Christian life.
Now our brother brought before us, in a lovely way, the Lord Jesus Christ as our example.
And when you meditate?
Upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
And all of these steps downward.
If our hearts are not touched by it.
We need to examine ourselves.
Oh, how touchy it is to read of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Going down, down, down, down.
Even to that scandalous thing of being put on the cross.
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Always thank God for such an example.
That's what we need today. That's the only example, the real example, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of us is a failure. Maybe we have in the past looked at some brother or some sister.
And maybe consciously or unconsciously.
We have been making that one our example.
And then something happens that brother or sister. Does something fail somewhere along the line? And what happens to us?
Who have been following an example like that were let down, but you look at the Lord Jesus Christ and you never get let down, you get lifted up.
So in this chapter, chapter 3, we have the apostle Paul bring before us the Lord Jesus Christ as our object.
Now we find in the second chapter that the Lord goes to glory. God has exalted him to his right hand, giving him a name which is above every name. That's where he is. And I believe in this third chapter, that is where Paul is looking. He's looking up there where Christ is sitting at God's right hand. And I get the picture of the apostle Paul running a race, and he's running as fast as he can to get there.
To get to Christ in resurrection, the one who is his righteousness. I believe that's what we get in this chapter. Always occupied with that one. How could the apostle Paul go through what he did if he didn't have that kind of an object before him?
And you would say that the third chapter perhaps presents Christ as food, like the corresponding to the old corn of the land, whereas the 2nd chapter presents Christ as food for us.
Like the manner that the children of Israel ate as they went through the wilderness. Now both of those.
Foods are necessary for the Christian Here we are walking through the wilderness, but our position is, according to Ephesians, as seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So we need both kinds of food. To explain it a little further, the children of Israel, as they were going through the wilderness, God fed them with the bread from heaven.
And that manner.
That small, like coriander seed white, fell upon the dew.
Upon the ground, how it corresponds. What our brother was saying is Christ humbled right down here as a man amongst men. But they're in all purity so that we need that food for us as we pass through the desert, as we're pilgrims and strangers here like we were singing.
But the object before the soul is so important too. And to think now this chapter, it's the old corner of the land that is Christ that had come out of heaven, come down and gone to the cross. And as you were saying, he's gone back to heaven. So that's where he is now. And nothing that will make us press on toward that mark like seeing Him up there.
I was thinking also as we read it, that those games going on out in Los Angeles.
There's only one that wins the prize. That's not true of this race. Everyone who is the Lord will win this race. It's an endurance race. There's no doubt about the end of it. But the enjoyment of the end of it before we get there is a different matter. So how good to have Christ before us?
First word you have here. That is the thought.
Is rejoice.
We find rejoicing all the way through this epistle.
And.
Some would wonder how it was that the Apostle Paul who was in prison.
Could set before these Saints in his ministry here continually the expression rejoice.
And I believe that would be the answer that.
The occupation with Christ and the path that He took for us.
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That was enough to give the apostle to forget all the circumstances that he was in.
He was in prison.
And to rejoice over and over again. We have it in this passage, in this.
In this book of Leptians, I was thinking too of the.
2nd chapter.
That.
Not only.
Is it the example for the Christian but?
It gives us the.
The Lord Jesus.
In his graciousness.
The graces of Christ are seen there in that chapter.
And that's the manna that our brothers spoke of that the children of Israel were feeding on day by day. They didn't know, of course, the meaning of that, but it was it was something sweet that they fed upon. It was something that first the the frost was laid down, then the man are laid on top. But wasn't it?
And came from heaven.
Well, brethren, that's what ministry and the Spirit should be always.
If the Spirit is is ministering to our souls, he lays down first the the frost on the ground, and then he puts the man on top of it, and he gives us something sweet. Now we may not feel it's sweet at the moment because it may hit our consciences, but it is sweet.
And so it's the graciousness of Christ that you have in that second chapter, as well as the example. It's part of the example.
But now in this chapter, the apostle, although he has righteousness, he has eternal life.
He's pressing on to it.
And that's the thought in this epistle that is the practical application of the truth through our lives.
It's a practice of Christianity. It isn't enough to say, yes, I know that truth, or I know another truth, but it's to enjoy it in our souls.
That's what the truth is for to enjoy, not just to know. In fact, brethren, we don't really know it. If we don't enjoy it, we can say we know it.
But we don't enjoy truth that we we don't enjoy truth. We don't know truth unless we enjoy it.
And so finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, not merely some doctrine, precious as doctrine is, but in the person of Christ was before us here.
To write the same thing to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous or irksome, but for you it is safe.
Now there are things here that he has to call attention to in the assembly.
Although I do not think we have sin mentioned in the epistle, do we? Although there is a little differences.
Brought in between some, but I don't think sin is brought in and it should not be brought in a normal Christianity. Sad to say it is.
Brought in sometimes in our lives, but not in normal Christianity.
Sin is not there.
Would you ever thought, brother on the manna in Exodus it says it is sweet like honey, but in numbers the oil is mentioned, isn't it?
There seems to be some significance to that difference.
But the oil that speaks of the Spirit of God.
If that's what you're referring to, we might be.
In circumstances where that side of the manna especially has to be emphasized, especially when it has to do with our tendency to rebel against God's orders and God's way with his people and guiding us through the wilderness, that this side of the Spirit of God be emphasized at times while normally.
The site of the honey might be emphasized.
The normal thing, that's how originally it is mentioned, that is sweet as honey. But how important that, especially as we have it even in this chapter where the flesh is mentioned and the spirit contrasted with this, that we realized that that this can only be made good to our souls.
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In the power of the Spirit and as we submit to it.
As he gives us grace, Exodus becomes 1St and then numbers.
And in Exodus, it's like the believer who has just saved he's he's in the full enjoyment, you might say, in the measure that he has.
Of of the work of Christ for him and the position he has now in Christ. But in numbers. You have the experiences of the wilderness and you have that to exercise the conscience. And no doubt that's why there is that difference. Well, it's often been brought out.
But numbers and Philippians go together.
Numbers answers to Philippians. Philippians answers to numbers.
And of course, in the book of Numbers we have the journeys of the children of Israel described, detailed, and they go through a lot of experiences.
And didn't they even murmur about this manner?
And it was a sad thing to see that.
Well, there are a lot of sad experiences related in the Book of Numbers.
Well, there can be a lot of sad experiences in the Christian life.
But I believe this book of Philippians has been given to us to help us through the wilderness.
To encourage us, to give us grace, to give us strength, to give us what we need.
To get through the wilderness, because the wilderness journey.
Hard journey. I believe when Rebecca took that journey to Isaac, she didn't find it a very pleasant journey.
I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant thing to write, that camel day after day, and maybe there were privations along the way, and maybe she wondered sometimes whether it was worth it, but she had the servant there.
To encourage her, to speak to her, to speak to her about Isaac.
And that's what I believe kept her going. And when she got to Isaac, she lit off the camel. She had no use for the camel anymore. She was there in the presence of Isaac. This is what she had been looking forward to. And this is what encouraged her along the way. And we have the same thing for ourselves. We have the Spirit of God pictured in Eliezer.
Ministering Christ to us at the end of the road to encourage us to continue on.
Not to get discouraged, not to lay down the cross as it were, but to go on in separation unto the Lord, which of course separates us from the world, and feeding upon Christ in all the different aspects we find Him in, even in this epistle. Because first, He's our life, that is.
He is the one we're living for. He's one the one we're living by.
It's by means of him feeding upon him that will live. And then of course, he's our example and he's.
Shows us his grace and then he's our object. And finally in the last chapter he's presented to us there as our strength. Well, if we have Christ in his fullness, in his fullness in resource and all that he can minister to us and grace and mercy, we'll get through the wilderness. And may the Lord give us praise just to keep our eye fixed on Him and feeding on him until we get.
I was just saying that's what Paul is really bringing out in this epistle, that Christ is sufficient for whatever the situation or circumstance, because he was in probably the worst of conditions in prison, and yet here you see him speak, Rejoice in the Lord. And in the 4th chapter, fourth verse, rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.
He's feeding on Christ. That's all he could do, but that was enough.
For where he was, it sustained him, and it let him rejoice in the gospel going forth, even in his bonds. I was thinking, if we have Christ, not just the expression occupied with him, but feeding on Christ, that's important. We have a new life. That life is Christ. We have the minds of Christ, but it needs to grow in.
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Us that life needs to be fed and the word of God is the only way.
That's how you feed on Christ. And it was mentioned, not only rejoicing, but their sweetness.
Paul sense the sweetness even where he was and I was thinking along that line in Nehemiah just for one or two verses, one verse in a chapter 8, verse 10. The people were in a condition much as Christendom today, walls broken down, things given up.
But God in grace restored the wall and the temple, and here they were for the first time, feeding on the word of God. Feeding on the word of God. Four hours worth. As they stood there and listened, Ezra read and their hearts were filled with joy. And this is what he said. Go your way. Verse 10. Eat the fat, drink the sweet.
And send portions under them for whom nothing's prepared.
For this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength sweet, and joy mixed here. And that's what we have in Philippians. Eat the fat, brethren. Christ is the fast, the excellence. Himself is person altogether lovely. We can feed on Christ in this word of God. The fat and the sacrifices was all for God.
It's the excellence, but we can take it now and enjoy that part and drink the sweet. That's the work of Christ for us. Isn't that sweet when you know what He's done for you? Take the tree and cast it into the waters, and the bitter waters were sweet. And that's the thought here. And then the joy of the Lord is your strength. Paul had strength in prison.
Strength like none had and he want them to have it. So we've got something beautiful here in this portion.
I was thinking it's mentioned each chapter has sort of a title for the young people. I like the four peas. I could remember them clearer. Purpose for the first for me to live is Christ. That's verse 21. There's your whole purpose. If you got prize, you got everything. You got purpose.
And then of course, in chapter 2, we've had that pattern. That's verse five. Let this mind be in you. That was in Christ Jesus. It says in First Corinthians, second chapter at the end, we have the mind of Christ. That's a wonderful thought. We have it, but are we letting it rule in our lives now? Our third chapter we're in. It's beautiful. This is the prize.
It says in verse four that 14 I pressed toward the mark for the prize.
There's a prize ahead. We're all going to get it, but let's work for it. It's the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We can attain it even here in fullness there, but isn't that a wonderful thoughts that prize and the 4th chapter power, verse 13. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me and oh how wonderful the Lord. We have some extras. We have an extra provision in verse.
29 a verse of the first chapter. Here's AP that is extra, just a bonus thrown in. For unto you is given. It's a gift in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Are you taking that gift? Are you taking that special privilege? It's yours, Peter said, Happy are ye? If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you. You'll never have that opportunity.
You'll never have that privilege again for all eternity. Well, there's another bonus notice.
19 in the last chapter, verse 19, probation, probation, a lovely fee. My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That's the blank check. Very believer, full provision. If you're doing his will, don't worry about how you take care of that. And I believe there's one more.
Chapter 4 and verse 15 I think.
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May I believe that's perfect that she may. I'm sorry, verse 15.
Now Ethiopians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel.
When I departed from Macedonia, no church communities with me. I'm sorry it's not diverse. Maybe someone knows where it is. There is one. Oh, chapter 3, verse 15. I know there's one here. It's perfect.
I Let us therefore as many as be perfect, thus minded, fully grown spiritually.
I'm growing it in Christ. Well, it's lovely to see those bees as we're going through it now, we're in the one that brings out that object we have.
It's the liberty every believer has. It's it's freedom. What is freedom? It's the liberty to please the Lord. And that lovely thought? That's our object now.
We ought to feed on price in the divinely prescribed way that this comes out in connection with the manner. You know, we find in Exodus that it was to be bacon and was to be seated or cooked. And in Numbers 11 we find that they added two additional ways how to prepare the manner, and we ought not to imitate that. And that is.
That day in verse eight of Chapter 11.
They grounded.
In mills and beat it in a mortar.
I believe there is much of this going on, and we might ourselves be tempted to do that when we no longer are satisfied with the divinely given food. We're looking for deviations and human ways of feeding on it. We ought to be guarded against that, beloved, and it is in this connection that the oil is mentioned in verse eight of Chapter 11. How important that is, Beloved, There is a divine way.
We should feed on Christ and not use human techniques and human wisdom. This is not going to accomplish what God gave us this food for, and it will eventually lead to even more complaining. We are no longer satisfied with the divinely prescribed way of feeding on Christ. How careful we are to be, but nevertheless we know this is given to us for our food.
Our soul to sustain us in the wilderness and how good we.
In Hawaii we should be to listen to the divinely prescribed order, how to feed on Christ. Expectations here are very important and they're not given without purpose.
Wherever expectations are given and the connection they're given in are for a very special purpose and so.
These these.
Enemies here of the believer that are mentioned would hinder the soul from adding in to the subject of this chapter.
So there are those who.
Would be.
Careless as to the truth that the dogs would suggest just tearing things to pieces. And there are those who do that, you know.
And not careful about the truth of God.
But then there is also.
The evil workers. Now I believe that that refers to the Judaizing teachers that would come in to rob the Saints of their liberty in Christ.
Anything of illegal character.
Will rob us of our liberties in Christ.
And to allow these things to come in among us.
Is entirely wrong.
For any anyone to set themselves up and look down on others is not esteeming other better than themselves.
And this is this is what takes place sometimes as though there were certain classes in the assembly of some were better than others.
Some who take a lower path, all that's contrary to scripture.
There may be those who take a lower path, but that's not our place to judge. We consider the truth of the one body is a very precious truth that includes every believer. And as far as God is concerned, there's no partiality. There should be no partiality with us.
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We should regard all the Saints.
In that way.
The Tabernacle was all covered with gold. There was no not seen in the Tabernacle and we're not to be occupied with the failures of others.
We're to see Christ in them if possible, and that's what we should be thinking about. We should not be tearing down. We should not be separating the Saints.
We should regard them all as the founding in Christ.
And so here we have beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
Well, those are.
Or the ones that are operating in the churches of Galatia.
They were saying you had to have the law besides believing on Christ, you wouldn't be saved. That's the line of things that was being introduced.
Now all this would hinder the enjoyment of that pure object for the soul that we have here in this chapter.
If we start with this first sentence here again and stress the importance of the Lord His person, I think it will help us in going on in the chapter. We might notice in Ephesians chapter 6 that we have a very similar statement.
In the 10th verse.
Of Ephesians 6, but it's different.
Here in Ephesians 610 it says finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Now our chapter says, rejoice in the Lord. The difference is important. Let's go back and read a verse in Ecclesiastes now in the 9th chapter of Ecclesiastes.
The first part of the 11Th verse. Ecclesiastes, 9/11. I returned and saw.
Under the sun that the race.
Is not to the Swift.
Nor the battle to the strong. Now it's a battle in Ephesians. It's the race in Philippians, and the flesh can't win it either way.
If flesh can't win the battle and the flesh can't win the race, fixing up the flesh is what our brother was talking about. Beware of the concession.
You can't fix the flash up and win the race to the glory. It's the person that we need before us. And in Ephesians, it's it's the warfare. We have to take the whole armor of God to come back in this warfare in heavenly places, to abide in that heavenly position. But here in Philippians, we're not there. We have that before us.
And so this is the prize. This is the goal before the soul. What is it? It's the Lord.
Rejoice in him. Well, we need both in Ephesians to have these wonderful truths and to enjoy them ahead of time. Before we get to heaven, we have to combat, we have to be strong, and it's in the same way in the Lord as.
Paul wrote to Timothy, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. Our brother was Speaking of grace. Oh, to see that grace.
Of that blessed One to see him. So it's the person that's immediately before us.
Finally, my brethren rejoiced in the Lord. Well, if we're rejoicing in him, won't we want to be where he is or we're going to be there? But it's not a race to the swift. It's a race of endurance just going on every day. We might see a fellow Christian going on in a way that we wondered about.
And maybe doing things.
That we would question.
What should be my course of action toward one like that? Go and preach the law to him, or minister Christ to him.
I've seen, dear souls.
In the assembly.
They continue to come to the assembly meetings.
Where we read the word.
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Where Christ was ministered.
And those dear souls could be seen to be growing.
And perhaps some of those old things that we might wonder about.
And we might feel like giving them a set of rules to go by, those things dropped off.
As they were fit on Christ, and as they themselves read the Word and fed on Christ, how are we fed on Christ? The Spirit of God does the feeding as we read the Word and meditate upon it.
That's how we're fed upon Christ.
And the Constitution would try to straighten out a person by giving him a set of rules to go by, or what happens when that takes place? The person looks at those rules and then he looks at himself, and then he begins to think, well, how am I doing? How am I doing? At what stage am I? Where am I in my growth and progress?
He's looking at himself, it's not Christ.
Well, the Constitution is something like.
While we were still living in Des Moines, in the neighbors yard there was a big, great big oak tree.
I don't know how.
Bigot was in diameter, but it was a good size and it had some big strong branches and they reached up a long way.
When it came time for leaves to fall in the autumn.
Some of the leaves of that tree didn't fall. I noticed some branches there that had nearly all of their leaves all the way through the winter.
Well, it didn't look very nice. It looked all ragged, perhaps like we look sometimes to one another.
I felt like going out there and climbing up that tree and pulling all of those leaves off.
But no, what was the use of that? I knew what would happen in the springtime.
When it warmed up, the rains came, the stamp, the SAT the life and the tree started flowing up into the branches and out to where those leaves were.
When it started to push out new life there, what happened? Those old leaves chopped off.
Oh, to me that has been an example of what we need.
Life of the Lord Jesus Christ flowing through us, feeding upon Christ, growing in grace and knowledge of Him. And those things that not might not be according to what a Christian ought to be, they will drop off.
The important thing is to feed upon Christ. If you begin to minister rules and regulations to people, it occupies them with themselves and they begin to think that they can do something and they get puffed up with pride.
But if you're feeding on Christ and looking at Christ as we have here in the second chapter and all of his loneliness and grace, that will encourage you to humble yourself. And if you read about him in the in the third chapter in the glory, the object for our hearts, oh what it does to you.
And it wants it makes you want to be more like him without having any set of rules before you. You just want to be more like him. You want to please him.
May the Lord give us grace to really feed upon Christ, and I have Him before us in all of His loveliness, that we might grow in grace and knowledge of Him. Not in grace and knowledge of what I can do, but in grace and knowledge of Him.
And as we've been reminded of what he can do, his power.
The fixing up of the flesh or this statement. Beware of the concession. If we would read a verse in Galatians, I think it would help us to understand what this is.
Beware of the concession in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 12.
I believe it's a fine example of what the Spirit of God is bringing before us. Any faith in Philippians?
The Galatians Saints were suffering from those who came along and sought to put them under the law under which they never had been as Christians. And here it says why in verse 12.
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As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. Notice that a fair show in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised. Why? Only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
In the first part of our verse here in Philippians 3, it says beware of dogs. Now that's tearing, rending. The last part beware of the concession is fixing up.
It's the flesh fixed up and he says beware of it.
Well, how, how very profitable is to take that warning. The flesh profiteth nothing, and those who had gone to Galatians taught these things.
We're wanting these people to be under the law to be circumcised so that they wouldn't suffer that persecution for the cross of Christ. Oh, how much better to go along with Christ and rejoice in the Lord and have a new life and not go back to that old thing that God gave up with in the 6th of Genesis. God says in the 6th of Genesis.
The end of all flesh has come before me, but he went ahead and tested it.
Up to the cross and that's the end of the test of the flesh. So in Christianity there is no such thing as profiting from fixing up the flesh. Say then we are the circumcision. We'll go ahead and explain that, brother. That's the next verse. Well, in Colossians we find Colossians 2. I believe we find that.
Christian circumcision took place at the cross of Christ.
That's where it took place. The flesh was cut off completely.
That's what Paul means when he says we are the circumcision.
We are our whole position is found in Christ is death to everything else.
For in Christ and so the flesh is cut off.
And we're to regard it in that way. And we're seen as those who are in a new position, the old having been cut off completely. Not in anything we have done in fixing up the flesh or anything else, but it's what Christ did. All the blessings that the believer has is found in the finished work of Christ. And you don't need to seek elsewhere because you won't find anything.
Christ is the answer to it all.
And all the work that he's accomplished has brought us into that new position and has given us that real liberty where now we can enter into the precious truths that the apostle setting before us here with the eye fixed upon Christ, because that's where we're going.
We have life in Christ. We have righteousness.
And we have an inheritance, we have all these things, but brethren, do we have it practically in our souls? That's the point here. Christian experience is Philippians practical Christian experience, making these things good in our souls, not trying to make something over in ourselves.
But just to recognize that it's all dead and now we have everything.
Practical Christian experience, making these things good in our souls. Not trying to make something over in ourselves, but to just to recognize that it's all dead and now we have everything we want in Christ.
What will we have in heaven? We have anything else?
No, we'll have just Christ. But you see, we learned so slowly, and we need to take each thing separately and enjoy it in our souls as we read it, as we hear it and realize these things practically. And that's why Philippians was written Philippians, entirely different from the other epistles for that purpose. You don't sit down to the table.
And eat a meal for the whole.
Of the rest of your life.
Sometimes that's what we want to do.
And as far as I can see.
The institutions or Christian institution, Christian colleges by and so on, they're set up to do that thing to give you in a little while.
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Some things for the whole rest of your life.
But that isn't the way it is as our brothers bringing out. It's a little here, a little there, eating upon the Lord Jesus Christ, getting a little here and a little there, Day by day eating our soul. That's what what it really is. Day by day, feeding upon the Lord, reading a little of the Word.
Perhaps we find it difficult to fit it into our scheme of things or our planning for the day, to have a time for reading of the Word and for prayer.
But it doesn't seem to me that we find any problem in fitting into the scheme of things a time to sit down at the table to feed our bodies.
Where are the priorities? What are they? What do we put first?
Well, I believe we find here that the Apostle Paul was putting the Lord Jesus Christ first.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. We are afraid to take the Lord at His word. I'm afraid to do it. And it's a testing for every one of us. We have to come to grips with it. And if we would grow really as a Christian ought to grow, we'll have to come to grips with it.
Otherwise we'll find ourselves going backwards.
We're either going forward or we're going backward. There's no such a thing as a child of God standing still.
If we're feeding, our Christ will grow. If we don't, we'll wither away. Wonder if we might add?
Word to what has been said as a kind of a word of warning to us in Galatians chapter 2.
We find this.
Legal.
Group and party that we face in the epistles, beginning back with those that are of Christ.
And we encounter them time and again.
I was thinking of this as we're speaking about a battle and a warfare.
Galatians 211.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
Before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles.
When they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
When I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, liveth after the manner of Gentiles.
And not as do the Jews. Why compel us now the Gentiles, to live as to the Jews?
Here we have a an apostle.
Peter.
Who is walking straightforwardly?
At least outwardly.
And some come from a man named James. And Peter is afraid of James the Apostle Peter afraid.
Well, he withdraws and follows the line of thinking that there is an inner Christian circle for those who have kept certain rules.
And I was thinking of this in the sense that even Peter was caught in it and Barnabas was caught in it.
Now this happened, I believe, shortly after the letter was written in the Gentiles being under law back in Acts 15.
And if that were so, we see something else about James.
That is, he had a way. It was his suggestion, as I remember, that they write a letter to the Gentiles telling them they were not at all.
But apparently James never changed his attitude toward Gentiles. He still saw them as an inferior level of Christian.
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And theater. This happened, I believe, shortly after that letter was written and sent around. And Peter knew that.
So when he comes out to Antioch, he falls under the influence of one.
To form or to follow one that's already formed a higher Christian fellowship?
We might recognize in James a man who had a way to keep the outward thing together, so to speak. He had the letter to write about the Gentiles not being under law, to keep them all into boats. But his heart hadn't changed. He hasn't seen the truth of the one body.
And now when he comes, are some come from him. Even Peter is frightened away from walking straightforwardly according to the truth of the gospel.
I was thinking of just as a word of warning for us, I would like to read in Philippians again about I believe this same kind person because there is an open warfare against the flesh and the spirit. One is against the other. You can never make them meet.
Philippians one verse.
15 Some indeed preach Christ.
Even of envy and strife. Oh, what a use to make of the good news of that blessed person. And some also of goodwill, the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds. Oh, this is what it is. It's when the flash becomes active, any movement is going to be against the things of God.
One more thing comes to mind I'd just like to mention as a warning to us.
James was at least one of the star witnesses of Paul's innocence when they carried him off to jail.
And he never comes forward.
To bear witness to his brother.
He lets him go off to jail and perhaps even to death, and later he did go into death, and James never opens his mouth to his to bear witness to his innocence.
Or we can never expect anything good out of the flesh under any level of education, be it biblical or not.
Except that which is against the things of God. And we've heard it. It says beware.
And we've heard of a battle of warfare, so it is beloved. We need to remember that these things do, as we've heard, rob us of Christ. We're no stronger than Peter if they're strong, and look how he succumbs to that.
May we do have Christ.
For our portion and not find something less than Christ and think that I've got it only Himself and be satisfied only with Him when we're with Him. And until that point press on.
Just as He gave us in verse 2-3 specific things to be aware of, it's nice to see the positive in verse 3. Three things to rejoice it and continue on in. The good of the first is we worship God in the Spirit.
By the Spirit it's the same thought and I was thinking how nice in John Ford 23 when the Lord said to that dear woman, The hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father seeketh such to worship him. What a wonderful thought that is. And this is the positive. We have three things that we.
Beware of, but this we should rejoice in is all grace. We're worshipping according to the Spirit and the Word of God, and the Father seeketh such. Well, the second thing is we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's this epistle. The proof of it is this epistle. It's the prison epistle, but it's the epistle of rejoicing 16 times.
And it isn't a matter of circumstances when one is saved.
It's a matter of how much you're enjoying Christ.
You can't receive Christ without joy. It's impossible, But that joy gets better and better as you go on with him. That's the thought. The third thing, we have no confidence in the flesh. And the apostle Paul in Romans 7, verse eight says, I know that in me that is my flesh. There's no good thing. Well, it's nice to have that incitement against yourself in your heart continually.
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And then Christ can fill that heart and you can have things that are profitable and lasting for His glory. So we have 3 positive things. It's nice that He gives us these three things and how wonderful they are. We should strive to continue in the good of them all three.
The last one is what he uses to open up the following line of things that he has before him here.
Have no confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more the Apostle.
Is speaking here.
Of religious flesh.
That is that which.
Can appear as the worst form of an enemy to us there's nothing worse than.
An religious evil.
Think that over.
The world is full of evil, but what could be worse than attacking the person of Christ?
What could be worse than setting aside the truth of God?
And so.
We find here that.
It's religious flesh we find the Pharisees. You know when the Lord was here, they attributed his works to Satan.
That's religious flesh.
They're the ones that had the oracles of God.
And Paul was in that group at one time.
He was among the Pharisees, He was among the Sadducees, He was the one of the leaders that was.
Are seeking to do away with the name of Jesus. That's religious flesh.
Now it says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man think of that death where he might trust in the flesh I more. And then he gives a list of things that characterize his former life.
All religious. Religious flesh.
Paul wasn't engaged in what people speak of generally as evil, except the fact that he did resort to hitting men and women in prison and killing them.
For the truth sake, he thought.
The Jewish law.
But now he says circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel.
That's something wonderful, isn't it, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the Church?
Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
It's all religious flesh.
Righteousness in the law, blameless.
He couldn't they couldn't find blamed on Paul as to his outward.
Character.
Ah, but there was blame. We get that in Romans 7.
Thou shalt not covet. You see what was going on inwardly. There was not a new nature.
It all belonged to the old man, the old Adam, nature, religious as it was, that all belonged to man in the flesh.
Now this all has to be done away with. Falcon glory in that. If he was going to glory from that side, he could glory in that. But it's all religious. And then he says.
But what things were gained to me?
Those I counted lost for Christ.
Doubtless, and I count all things notice that.
All things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Paul trades it all off for one thing, and that's the Excellency.
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Of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And then he adds, For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ, had he not Christ, yes.
But you see, this is practical Christianity. Paul wanted to be in the full enjoyment of what he had believed. It wasn't enough to have the knowledge of it.
And he wanted to do away with all the religion that belonged to the flesh. He didn't want any part in it. He was through with it. Although he had attained to the highest point in it of the day, he didn't want any more of it. He wanted Christ. Christ isn't religion, it's a person.
Knowledge.
Of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Just think of what he's saying there.
Christ Jesus my Lord, what good words for us.
To meditate on.
And to get the Gouda.
You meditate on something like that.
And it comes to you.
Can you say that? Can I say that, Christ Jesus my Lord?
Well, there are other things, other people and other circumstances and all that would like to be Lords over us.
And this Apostle Paul, in his days of exercise, had gone through this.
There were things that.
Wanted to Lord themselves over him, be Lord of him.
All these things that he delineates here.
And that's where our problem is, if we have any problem at all.
It's allowing other things to have dominion over us.
Even sin allowing it to have dominion over us, but we're told in Romans sin shall not have dominion over us.
And her brother touched on that.
In his address this afternoon.
We're dead with Christ and risen with Christ. And I love that verse, verse 57.
1St Corinthians 15, the Resurrection chapter.
Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder the apostle could say that and write that. I know he wrote it by inspiration, but I believe he felt it himself.
And here he is using the same kind of words. Christ Jesus my Lord.
And if there is any victory in our lives, where is it coming from?
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, the victory has been won by Him when He rose from the dead, victorious over all of our enemies, and that's why this is brought through to us here in this chapter.
Righteousness. On which side of death is it?
It's on resurrection site. That's the kind of righteousness we have in Christ.
And that's the kind of righteousness he was looking forward to, to meet Christ in the glory on the other side of death, resurrection side, on victory side.
And we need not go through life defeated. Christ is our Savior.
Christ is our Lord, and when we have Christ Jesus, Jesus brings before us what we have in chapter 2.
But Christ brings before us the exalted 1, the anointed one, And then he says, My Lord, that one is my Lord.
And we confess that to the Lord Jesus. Thou art my Lord.
Thou art my Lord. Yes, we confess him as Savior, but what about confessing him as Lord?
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And see that he is everything.
May the Lord give us grace to say what the apostle Paul says here.
And he is the subject of our worship. I'd just like to make another statement or two about verse 3.
We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit or by the Spirit that's already been said, and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
Sometimes young people as they are learning more of truth.
Want to know why we do not have instrumental music?
In our meeting, and I think it's a good thing to get a little bit of help on and I believe this verse is one of them that does help us in that way.
Worship.
God.
By the Spirit. And then the last phrase, no confidence in the flesh. There's no place for the flesh in worship today. As we've already said, the end of the test of the flesh.
Was Christ on the cross the Jew had been tested with a visible.
And material form of worship in the law, ordinances, Tabernacle and temple, priesthood, and the kings and all the altars and sacrifices that has terminated Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. But God has a people today and he wants to worship today just like he made provision for it and wanted it in the.
But now what is it? It's by the Spirit. There are two scriptures we ought to read. First one in Acts 17.
To help on this subject.
As to not using instrumental music in our meetings for worship in particular.
Here Paul was preaching to the Athenians.
Not educated people of that day.
And he makes a wonderful statement.
In verses 24 and five, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything. Well, that's final there. There's no place for the hands.
To be used in worship today at all? Well, what do we use then in worship? Turn to Romans 15.
And we get what we can use.
And what pleases God?
As to worship today by the Spirit.
No place for the flesh.
Romans 15 verses 5:00 and 6:00.
Now the go to patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus that he may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we take these three different references. They're very helpful as to worship and what pleases God today.
Certainly it's by the Spirit, and the subject of it is Christ Jesus our Lord, our Savior, what He has done for us, and the heart that is.
One for Christ and touched with his loveliness is the person whose mouth will be opened to give praise and adoration and worship to God. So these three things again in this verse, worship God by the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus. They those two are positive. The other is really negative. There's no place for the flesh there. God will not.
He has done with that test. It's over with and we should not try to reintroduce it in any form. Our brother in John 4.
We there, we have worshiped the Father in spirit and in truth. And that's very important to see because.
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All that man has raised up in his worship is not according to the truth.
He may have parts of truth in it, but we have to have the truth of God or it's not real worship.
Spirit and truth, I think that's important.
Expression here that we are considering two. In the eighth verse we have the word knowledge.
You'll find a little later that the apostle speaks of knowledge again, or to know.
The 10th verse that I may know him.
We're living in a day when knowledge is being stressed.
There seems to be such a wonderful thing to to have a lot of knowledge of all kinds of things.
But the Spirit of God tells us in Corinthians that.
Knowledge will cease.
So we have two kinds of knowledge in Scripture, more than that I understand, but two that we more or less are acquainted with. And one is the knowledge of things that are passing before our eyes continually. The fact that we're sitting in a room with so many chairs in it and so on. All that knowledge will pass away.
But the apostle is speaking about a knowledge that will not pass away.
It's to know Christ.
Now wouldn't it be nice, brethren, if we spent our time on the things that won't pass away?
Instead of spending so much time on things that will pass away.
And we mustn't be taken in with the day. I know that a great deal has to do with making a living.
But let's be temperate in everything. Let's not go overboard on knowledge because it's going to pass away. The kind of knowledge you get in this world. You may make a little more money, but you're if you go very far, you'll find that your mouth will be silent in the assembly if you go after the things of this world, and there won't be the worship in the spirit.
You're going to lose in that measure in which you take up of the things of this world as an object.
So let's be sure that we have the right knowledge before us here.
Here it says.
Yeah, doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them. But done that I meant may win Christ.
That's the knowledge that he wants. He wants to be filled with it.
And be found in him.
That is practically an experience, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, or the faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God.
By faith.
Now that's a different kind of righteousness from what he was Speaking of that he had attained to in the under the law.
Under the law, it was before man.
But here it's a kind of righteousness that you cannot attain to.
It's a righteousness that God gives to those who simply believe in Jesus. That's the kind of righteousness that he wanted. But he wanted to be in the enjoyment of this, and he wanted to get rid of the last little bit of human righteousness that he had been so used to talking about. He wanted to be through with it all.
All here was benching the knowledge of Jesus Christ as the one thing He's seeking and and desiring to know more of Him.
And so everything he had before, he could not only count but lost, but has done, he just found it as unworthy to even mention, even mention. Well, you know how wonderful it is when you reach that point.
Peter, when he was with the Lord, had a sense that he gave up things when he followed the Lord. He hadn't reached this point yet though. But it's nice to see the Lords answer for that in comparison to this in chapter two. Well no, it's been back in Mark's gospel.
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Mark's Gospel chapter 10 and verse 28. At the middle, Peter said to the Lord, low, We have left all and followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that's left, house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lambs, for my sake and the Gospels, but he shall receive 100 fold. Now in this time, houses and brethren, sisters, mothers and children, and lions with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life.
Well, Peter was thinking about these possessions. It wasn't really given up the world in a sense, but he left all that. He called possessions and his work and went and followed the Lord. He hadn't really realized that you have to give up cell. That's where Paul is. He gave up cell. Peter learned that lesson at the cross. He hadn't given up self yet.
But his epistle, of course, tells us he gave up self. That's a cross.
He still thought there was something himself. And so we have this beautiful high point here that Paul said, whatever it is, even myself, my reputation as we reminded of with the young people, anything, it's dumb. It doesn't mean anything. I can know Christ.
And you know, the more you go on with him, the better you know him, and the better you know him, the more you love him. And that's what Paul was telling us here is to know him, that I might know him. What a wonderful thing it is to realize that we're nothing, but by the grace of God through Christ, were children of the King.
You know, that's a wonderful thought, and that's what Paul's got. He wants a little more about that one.
It gives real dignity to one. That's what he has here. Dignity, but no pride.
There's no pride left, it's just dignity because of Christ. And that's why he says our glory in that, our glory in him, our glory in the cross, because I'm everything through it. And yet humbleness comes in and humility, I'm not worthy. So it's just a wonderful thing that results when you get to this point. Dignity of a believer, no pride. And that's a lovely place to be.