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My heart again.
What? Right, That's all the word for our day.
She'll save our soul.
And make God see.
How long it is The Lord is the Lord, the glory, the Lord.
Yeah.
00:05:54
That I may know him. I'm wondering if we could consider the third chapter.
Of Philippians.
We feel we should read the whole chapter.
Yes, 21 verses.
Philippians 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 dogs, beware of evil workers, Beware of the concision, 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 more circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the war of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
But a lot of things were gain to me, those I counted lost for Christ, yeah, doubtless, and 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 do count them but them, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness.
Which is of God by faith that I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings, being 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, were already perfect, But I follow after, if 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 do.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press for the mark for the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as being perfect, be thus minded, And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where to we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mine the same thing.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is is in their shame, who mind earthly things for our conversation.
00:10:09
Is in heaven from whence we look. Also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashion like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
We have had this passage before us many times before, but Paul does not apologize to the Philippians that he was writing the same things to them as he says. To write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. We have to be told over and over again precious truths that are ours to enjoy and.
That which marks up the Christian testimony in these last days, rejoice in the Lord. This epistle is normal Christian experience, and you find rejoicing and joy all through it. It is what is characteristic of the Christian I don't think sin is mentioned in this epistle. The victory of walking with the Lord is prominent throughout.
But there were enemies.
And there are today to rob us of what is truly ours. And so he says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. I think each one of those has a Jewish flavor to it. The.
The greatest enemy to Christianity is the law, the principle of law. I mean that we gain God's favor by doing something.
It's all grace and to be established in grace, and how easy it is to shift off of the ground of grace to that of law, the principle of law.
We tend to put ourselves under law in many ways.
The dogs were noted for tearing and.
Devouring.
And so it is. Beware of dogs. Beware of those that would put you under ******* and seek to rob you of your blessings that are in Christ. Evil workers are those that promote that which is not of God, not according to the New Testament teaching of grace. Beware of the concision. You get an example of what the concision is in at the time of length.
Before Easter, people will deny themselves something. If they smoke, they'll deny themselves smoking or if they drink, they don't drink during that time, or if they swear, they don't swear during that time. That's the principle of the concision.
Tastes not. Touch not. Handle not. That's the law. Can't do this. You can't touch this. You can't. And you deny yourself those things and what it is, it's fixing up the old man.
It's not the circumcision, which is a total cutting off of the old man. And the principle of law is to fix up the old man and put one under certain restrictions. I can't do this and I can't do that. And when one follows that, he feels good about himself and he hasn't come to the realization of what Christianity really is. It's a complete judgment of all that we are in the flesh.
And in Adam setting aside of the old man altogether, And now we have.
We are a Newman in Christ. It's not just denying myself this or that vice or evil or bad habit that I have, but it's a complete change. It's going from Adam to Christ and from the flesh to the Spirit. And this is what Christianity is all throughout this chapter he is comparing the excellence, the greatness of Christianity versus the attainments that he had achieved as a man.
00:15:15
A very religious man, Saul of Tarsus. He's not comparing himself the righteousness that he has in Christ with his evil deeds and the evil that he did when he persecuted the church. In fact, when he lists the persecution of the Church in this chapter, it was something that he gloried in. He was he was proud of the fact that he was doing that as a Jew. He was proud of the fact that he was snuffing out evil.
The evil of Christianity, that new religion that had come in the the followers of the despised Jesus of Nazareth. He thought he was doing the will of God when he did that, and so that was to his credit. And so in this chapter, when he talks about laying aside the righteousness which he had as a man in the flesh, a religious man, the things he could glory in, in the flesh, he says, I found something infinitely better.
Christ is now my righteousness, and I have all in Him, and all the things that I once gloried in, that I once took pleasure in, that I once thought good of. I I counted down and lost. And so he's now seen what he was in the flesh of something like Job, who he gloried in his attainments, He gloried in His good works, and that was his problem.
Cried when he got in the presence of the Lord. He said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine high see of thee, Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. He came to the end of himself.
Sometimes you're driving along and you'll see a sticker. Maybe some of us have them. Proud parent of a, of an honor student you know well. Those are things that we can glory in, in the flesh.
And we can glory when our children do well. We can glory in all kinds of things, but the Christian has come to the realization that he glories only in Christ.
And that's what it means to rejoice in the Lord. Oh, and it's the glory in the Lord. Christianity is not so much what we are, it's what our God is. And I think it's so important to grasp that, like you say.
Judaism, in a certain way I can say is just about the opposite of Christianity. In Judaism, man what man could produce was the what was looked for. But in Christianity, God in effect says I have now tested what man was in the flesh. The test is over. Man has failed the test. Now I'm going to show you my own heart and so.
What is Christianity? But what is Christ? That is Christianity, brethren into glory in all that He is for us the tendency, the constant tendency, is to revert to what I am. What you mentioned, the.
Common What is mentioned so often today to feel good about yourself, self esteem. It is subtly a attack on what Christianity is rather than we don't figure any longer before God as men in the flesh. We're gone, we're out of the picture. What is Christianity but having a living?
Resurrected, glorified man in the glory before our souls. That's our life up there. It's not what we are. We start looking at ourselves. We're going to get discouraged.
We're going to see things that we're not satisfied with. When you look up at the glory of God and see that glorious man up there, that's Christianity. And to rejoice in the Lord is so important and that's the positive side. And then you get the negative warnings. But.
Notice chapter 4 and verse 4. You get the same exhortation.
In chapter 3, verse one rejoice in the Lord How long, brethren?
Is that the real experience? Are we always rejoicing? Brother, I have to confess that it's not always so. Why? Because I'm not occupied constantly with Christ. I'm distracted often times and in the measure that my thoughts, my mind is on other things distracted. I'm not going to be rejoicing in that nature.
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But it is that we have our rejoicing in the Lord.
Brethren, it's always it's an exhortation. He doesn't say rejoice in the Lord if you can.
Rejoice in the Lord, always so important, he says Again. I say rejoice. We have reason to rejoice, brethren, when we look at our portion in Christ. Important to get our eyes off ourselves, what we are.
This world around. Look up into the glory. See a man who went through this world.
And who is now the right hand of God in the highest position of honor and glory? Our Savior, our life, our all up there we have reason to rejoice. Paul was in prison when he wrote this. He couldn't rejoice in his circumstances, but he could always rejoice in the Lord.
I recall that Ezra who lived in very, very difficult days in the 5th century.
He said that as they were going to return, the little group was going to go back to Israel. He said there was a warning, 2 warnings, one was the at the hand of the enemy and then he said and they that lay wait to deceive.
So we have two enemies too.
Satan would set before younger ones, possibly.
The immorality around you're living. We're living in a world of filth and they're doing openly what they used to do in the dark, but that is the moral side, immorality. But the other side is that they that lay in wheat. By the way, this is what we have here, I believe, and that is the deception of bad teaching. So I would just like to say that the meeting.
You younger ones, if you listen to what the Lord is saying to you, you will be armed against the enemy that lies in wait to get you and to deceive you. But as we're hearing, we have one positive, and that is that when we are having our eye only on Christ, that is the safeguard against anything that.
An enemy Satan is trying to deceive everyone of us, young and older like, but if our eye is on Christ, then we're safe.
The reason Christianity is not popular.
Is because it gives no place, no place to the first man you see. These signs say no to drugs.
That's like the principle at Lent, you know, you deny yourself certain bad habits that you have and say no to drugs.
No to the flesh.
Is not something the world will accept.
The world promotes indulging the flesh it promotes.
Cheating.
Lying, stealing, fornication and all these evils. It promotes these things but there are some things which are self-destructive like drugs and so it will say say no to these.
But say no to all that is appealing. Take for instance, sports. Sports is a multibillion dollar business and that's why it's promoted so much. Because man is, he has a God and his God, his money and.
So he will use whatever he can to make money.
I find it sad when I go to a room where there's a young boy that's been staying and I'm given that room to stay in and I see pictures on the wall of heroes that he has and they're usually sports figures.
00:25:12
You know, that's a form of idolatry.
And some of these men that we that we admire as our heroes are morally reprobate persons. Or they can play basketball well, or baseball well, or football well, or hockey well. Whatever it is, they can do that well. But their life is a life of sin. Well, we ought not to be eulogizing and admiring and hanging up pictures of those kinds of people.
Who is it that we want to exalt?
Only one man, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one.
And all the others, no matter how admirable they might be and whatever, whatever pursuit they're in.
They're sinners. They're not to be the object of our hearts. Christ is and everything that appeals to the first man into the flesh, and that is attractive to me, naturally.
I am to judge that.
And did not pursue it well. These are these are very practical things in school. You children, you young people, you students, you're being taught principles which are diametrically the opposite of what this book says. Exactly the opposite as Bob was mentioning Self esteem, feel good about yourself and.
When the Apostle Paul.
Came to.
Himself and came to the realization when Saul of Tarsus did and he became the apostle Paul. Saul was promoting himself, but Paul was promoting Christ.
And this is Christianity. The world does not want that. The world does not want him. The last the world saw of him was a man crucified on a cross. And they cried out away with this man. We will not have this Mandarin over us. The world has not changed young people. It does not want him.
It will not have him. And if you love him, you will not pursue the same things that the world pursues.
It's interesting to realize that the book, this book that we have divorced Philippians, is a very great contrast with Ephesians. And sometimes we take up the book of Ephesians, that is the church seen in Christ in Heaven.
But Philippians is the reverse. It's looking down from heaven and seeing Christ in US on earth.
And it's very needed to realize that here are in Ephesians. Why they were seen as seated up in heaven. Wonderful truth to fill our hearts and joyful anticipation of that and realization of it. But we need to realize now what's Philippians.
Poor people struggling down here on this earth. That's us beloved ones, and we need both those views.
To keep a balance, but this book is full of those practical.
Exhortation for us in our life down here, but ISIL almost also say that Philippians was, I understand, written almost at the end of the apostles life around 64 first and around 65 in his life. And the last book that Paul wrote second Timothy is around 66. So this is very close to the end of the apostles days and as it were, just like a father writing a letter to his children.
He's just saying, I'll hear this and listen. You watch out for this. Watch out for the oh beloved young people. May you hear what the Lord is saying to you. He loves you and He wants to protect you and me. Not only the young ones, but all of us were subject to the greatest attacks these days as never before, on the truth of Christ as the one gathering center.
And all that we might realize that he's with us in all our difficulties. He wants to lift us up and have our thoughts centered into Christ.
00:30:09
Isn't that true that the anime would seek to rob us and that's really what he's doing when you allow? When we follow these things, we're robbing Christ of his glory, and I believe it's so important for us to realize that it says in the beginning and it's been stressed before, rejoice in the Lord.
We might feel good about certain things down here, but it's not really.
And I believe that's an important thing for all of us to realize. Doesn't seem like it's very young people through. But I need that definition just as much today, because I did when I was young. And the anime is going to try to rob us from the joy and unhappiness that we have in the Lord. If he could make you unhappy, he has succeeded. So we need to be reminded of these things, very practical way.
We have some wonderful examples given. I think it might be worthwhile to notice that from verses 4 through 14 the Apostle uses himself as an example and and it's very strong considering on nature that like verse 7 says. But what things were again to me I those I counted lost for Christ? Well, there are many things we might count for gain to ourselves, progress in the job.
Or things that we say, Well, I've done well, I've done a good job. Here is a man who really achieved and he said, I counted them for loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ. But where it's all Paul, you'll notice right through verse 14. It's all in the first person, he says. In verse 14 I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But I think it's important to recognize as we read these things about the Apostle Paul.
This objective it says in verse 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. In other words, Paul uses himself. He was a Hebrew of a Hebrews. He had attained to the highest levels of Judaism. He was highly respected, but he counted it all for loss, but for the knowledge of Christ. And then we.
Art. If he thus minded, That's what struck me. It's not something we can say. The Apostle Paul was a great servant of God, and he was chosen, and he was able to do those things. Now this is a word for us. That's what he says. If he gives himself as an example, he says, let us therefore as many as be perfect, not as mature, be thus minded. And so this is a word for us to have a right understanding of what's going to count for eternity if there's anything that the Lord is pleased to give us.
And this earth may be through our own efforts, but still He gave us the ability to do it. It still will count for nothing.
An eternity is to know Christ, and it's to have things in the balance, to understand what we're about in this earth. That doesn't tell us that we're to go out and give up our jobs or sell our houses or whatever. It's just to have things in the right balance, to see what is worthwhile for all eternity and what is it is to know Christ.
It's interesting that, as you pointed out, **** verse three We are the circumcision, and then verse 15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect, that is, those that have a full understanding of the Christian position and Christianity. But I just want to dwell a little on verse three. We are the circumcision.
In contrast with the concision, which is a group that gives up this or that, a few things that.
They feel that in doing that, it will make them more acceptable to God. And the Circumcision are those that realize that all that they are in Adam and in the flesh has been judged at the cross. And they accept that there's no good in me, no good in US. And we're not to feel good about ourselves, we're to feel good about the Lord. He's the one we're to feel good about. We are the Circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit. We don't worship like they did in the Old Testament by musical instruments.
We don't worship by orchestras, as is the case in so many churches today. We don't worship by the piano or any instrument that has no soul. No spirit is not capable of producing anything that God is pleased with. You can have an unsafe person at an organ or a piano that plays beautifully, or any musical instrument, and it sounds nice.
00:35:23
But God doesn't find any joy in that. We worship in the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is within us. He indwells us, and He produces in our souls that worship, that adoration, that praise to him of which he is alone worthy. We worship God in the Spirit, or, it says in Mr. Darby's translation, we worship by the Spirit of God, not by some mechanical contrivance, however nicely that sounds in our ears, but we worship by the Spirit of God.
We rejoice not in our attainments, not in our abilities, not in anything that we might have as given by God. But we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh.
That's those principles are diametrically the opposite to what you're taught in school today. Just the opposite and these things that have come out.
In just in my lifetime, the enemy has gotten ahold of our school system. The books that are coming out nowadays are some of them just plain blasphemous.
They're they're definitely the work of the enemy against Christ and.
The world is tolerant of every religion except one.
And that's Christianity.
The world is intolerant of Christians who really want to walk in the path of obedience to the word of God. It'll it'll bear. It'll tolerate Christians that compromise and have one foot in the world and one foot trying to follow the Lord, but one who's out and out.
Or Christ. The world has no room for it, for him or her whatsoever. None.
That's why Paul was in prison, because they didn't really have any.
Place in this world where a man that was, as you say, given to those principles, I'd like to just say for maybe the young what has been a help to me in contrasting concision with circumcision.
Concision is cutting half the flesh, whereas circumcision means cutting off the flesh, Circa means all the way around it.
It is completely cut off. In other words, you don't recognize it any longer as a principle of action any longer. And I think it's so good for young people. What is sometimes said, I think of people who diagnose certain young people, they need some self esteem.
It's not self esteem that they need. What they need is deliverance from all that we are as men in the flesh. As long as you're focused in on yourself, you're going to struggle. Christianity is not primarily focused inward. It's focused upward. It's focused on the person of Christ. It's objective first of all. I think it's so important to get that straight in our minds and Paul himself.
Even though he was the cheapest of the apostles, had to say his own judgment in Romans 7, I know that in me, that is in my flesh.
Dwelleth. No good thing, Absolutely nothing good there, brother. And if we're going to look inside, we're going to come sooner or later to that same conclusion. But it is a tremendously painful experience.
And they see some young people just struggling with that issue. It's by simple faith to recognize before God that God is done with that, and we need to be done with it ourselves, in our own minds to realize now that our position is dead with Christ, buried with him, raised with him. And we look up into the glory. We see our life up there at God's right hand.
00:40:05
Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to rejoice in him, that's deliverance from what we are. But it's so important because we have deceitful hearts, young people, and sometimes even unconsciously, we are occupied with what we are and it's not Christianity.
No confidence in the flesh. Christians should be a confident person, but not confident in himself, confident in the Lord at all times. But our hearts are so deceitful that sometimes we can persuade ourselves that we are being confident in the Lord. And the Lord only sees our hearts and sees perhaps that there's a lot of self-confidence there. So he allows trials to take place till we come not only doctrinally but practically to realize.
It's true what God says. It's true. There is no good thing in this flesh. Absolutely man.
It's important for us to.
Young ones and all old ones to get a grasp on what the flesh is. As we mentioned quite a few times and in our 4th course, no confidence in the flesh well.
Peter.
In his writings he helped me a great deal. A long time ago when I read that verse, and it was explained to me, either that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
What's that mean?
Well, let's not. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that if we don't do what the flesh would like to do, that verse says we don't sin, but the flesh that we have, it suffers. It wants to do those things. And if it doesn't, why can't I do this or why can't I do that? The flesh suffers in us. But what's the verse say?
We don't sin. So when we admit that it really is our old nature that would love to do that, but when we for the Lords sake, don't do it, we don't sin. And that is what was a great help to me long ago.
I suppose you could say that the Apostle Paul.
Had more to glory in as Saul of Tarsus in the flesh, the attainments that he had made in Judaism says in verse four, though I might also have confidence in the flesh. Is he saying, if anyone can have confidence in the flesh, surely it's I I can do it. Look, look at all that I could boast in as a man in the flesh. Religious man, If any other man thinketh that he hath, where of he might trust in the flesh?
So he's giving what he could glory in as a man in the flesh.
Not his bad things, but the things that were to his credit.
Circumcised, the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law, a Pharisee. All of these things he gloried, and they were all to his credit as a man in the flesh, a religious man.
Concerning Zeal persecuting the Church, as far as a religious Jew is concerned, that was one of his crowning accomplishments, that he was persecuting those that were part of that false religion. So he thought.
And false religion they followed that Jesus of Nazareth the one that.
That we crucified the one that we put to death because he was a blasphemer, he said. He was the Son of God. That's blasphemy.
He claimed to be God. That's blasphemy. We put him to death and.
So I persecuted the church. That was zeal. That was zeal that he had. And then he says, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He kept the law as far as a natural man can keep it, as perfectly as anyone He kept it. If you read Romans 7, he lets you know that the last commandment, thou shalt not lust, killed him. As far as what the law required outwardly, and all its ordinances and forms and ceremonies, he kept it. He never ate pork, he never ate ham, he never ate forbidden meats.
00:45:30
He kept the Law perfectly, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. So he's listing the things that were to his credit as a religious man.
But things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. He found now something so infinitely superior to all his Judaism that he gloried in, and that he was the best in that he could count all those things that he wants gloried in, that he thought so highly of, and he could count it loss and doubt.
He found Christ, which was infinitely better. Have we have we found Him to be such for us?
Do we have to ask ourselves the question?
The 8th day.
Where Israel never knew anything about it. What is the age today? Oh, that's resurrection. That's the Lord's day. There's no 9th day for Christianity. This is the.
This is the beginning and the end. Now we're in the eighth day, so that put an end to.
To Judaism, as Chuck has mentioned, that's the end of it. But the resurrection now onto the 8th day, and that's our day and that's never going to end.
Nobody had to pry these things off of all what he gloried in. What was it that created such a dramatic change in the Apostle Paul that those things that were gain to him are now all counted? Loss. What was it? It's one glimpse of that glorious man that shone down from him from heaven.
He was on his road to Damascus. One glimpse of that man. Everything changed. And I said that's really the power of Christianity. It's not coming and saying, hey, you can't do this and you can't do that. And the other thing you shouldn't do either power of Christianity is getting the soul filled with Christ. And those things just drop off like autumn leaves. They no longer have any place. They're of no value.
Fact he wants to get rid of them. Very strong feelings expressed here, but it's what created the change was 1 Glimpse that glorious savior.
We've just passed. We have to close, but we've just passed.
A A holiday Halloween that is satanic. If the world promotes it, it's not for the Christian. I want to say that again. If the world promotes it, it's not for the Christian.
And to have our children partake in that kind of thing is wrong.
Trick or treat? If you don't treat me, I'm going to trick you. I'm going to do some damage to your property. That's what it means. What part has a Christian to do with that kind of thing?
And yet it's so nice and everyone likes it so, and the costumes are appealing and all these things that appeal to the flesh. And so we go along with these things sometimes.
It's not Christianity at all. In fact, if you really knew the the history and the origin of that holiday, it's Satanic.
And it's getting worse and worse and worse every year. Why is it promoted? Because it's a multi billion dollar business.
That's why.
00:50:08
#46 in the back.
M46 in the appendix.
Where God can fly.
God.