Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Into the Word: Philippians" by Neal Pollard - Part 3

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"Into the Word: Philippians" by Neal Pollard - Part 3 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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handed out 100 of those worksheets.
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That wasn't enough. We did 150 last week. We've done 200 this week.
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So there should be, if you want one, I believe there should be a sheet.
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Tommy is walking around with those right now. Just raise your hand if you want
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one and you haven't gotten one. It'll make it maybe easier for him. There's some
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on this side, Tyler, that would like some.
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Theoretically, this should be the shortest class. Philippians 3 is the shortest
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chapter and we'll strive toward that end.
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I thought though I would begin, as we are getting those sheets,
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I wanted to ask a question because I believe that the way
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to break down Philippians chapter 3 as it fits into the overall purpose of the
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letter is some ways to have joy. I think that fits in
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with the overall theme of the book of Philippians. As we have stated in
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both of the weeks, this is a church that has some difficulties,
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some problems, and we're going to see what that is. And Paul is going
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to construct the letter to show what causes problems in just
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about any congregation, and that's putting ourselves above others.
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And so Paul has set about in the first half of the letter, and I
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think you can look when we start chapter 3 tonight to see that there's 2
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distinct halves to this letter. Paul began by telling them what he
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was praying for, for them, that he wanted them to increase
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in their knowledge and in their discernment that they may excel toward the
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coming of the day of Christ. And then immediately he starts giving examples
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of the mind that he wants to exist in them. And that's a mind
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that puts others above self. Paul is going to use himself as an example in
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chapter 1:12-26. He is going to exhort them to put that principle into
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play in 1:27 through chapter 2 and verse 4.
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Then he is going to give a second example. That's the example of Christ and
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how he put others above himself in chapters 2:5-11. And then he is going to
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exhort them again to put that principle into play in their lives in chapter
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2, verse 12 through either 16 or 18, depending on how you look at that.
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Or perhaps Paul gives himself as a third example of the mindset
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that he wants them to put into play by showing how he had given up
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for the cause of Christ and had laid himself out as a drink offering.
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And then he gives the next example, and that's of Timothy, of putting others above
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self. And then in chapter 2, verse 25 to
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the end of the chapter, he gives another example, and that's of Epaphroditus.
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And in between there in 2:12-16, if we didn't say it, he has
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exhorted them again to put that principle into play. So examples
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and exhortations. And then that's when we come to this spot
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in the letter. Before we look at the content in chapter 3, I wanted to
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ask you a question. What robs a church of
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its joy? Any church.
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What keeps it from being joyful? Okay, in a very
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broad sense, conflict. All right, if there's something brewing
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among the members, is there anything else outside of conflict
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that can take joy out of a church's heart?
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Lack of unity. Apathy.
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All right, if we just are indifferent and don't care. And lack of unity can
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look a lot of different ways. It can show itself up between personality
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conflicts, maybe pockets of different ideas that
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want to go in different directions. Anything else?
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What's robbing the joy? What potentially could rob the joy of
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the church at Philippi? What I want to do is to walk you through some
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of what Paul has already shown. A lack of knowledge and discernment can
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rob a church of joy. Would you agree with that? Chapter 1, verse 9 and
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10. Do a lot of the problems that we have in the body of Christ
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stem from not really knowing the Word of God,
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and even more fundamentally, not knowing the God of the Word
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and not being able to discern the principles of the Word. It robs
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joy. A second is divisive conduct. And so Paul is
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really going to drill down and make his strongest appeal to the church
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as a whole in chapter 1, verse 27 through chapter 2 and verse
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4, to not be divisive, but to be of one mind, one heart,
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one purpose, one love. And then selfishness and
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arrogance is going to rob a church of joy.
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If you have a church filled with people who are very selfish,
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there is no way that that's going to be an environment in which
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we're going to find joy or bring others into that. And arrogance in
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the different ways that it displays itself, arrogance in leadership,
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arrogance in those who fill the pulpit, arrogance in the Bible classroom,
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arrogance against those who are in positions of any kind of leadership,
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There's no joy in a circumstance like that. Then when we saw again last
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week is grumbling and disputing where there's the murmur. Let me
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ask you, when you think about the congregation of Israel for
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40 years, what words would you use to describe them?
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What? Complain, grumbling,
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grumbling, disputing. What word would you not use?
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Happy. They are not joyful.
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And so what Paul is doing along the way, alongside of these examples and
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these exhortations, is he is kind of pointing out some of the landmines of joy
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in the congregation. And I think no matter who we are, we want to be
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a part of a joyful congregation. And there is a recipe, there's a way
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for that to take place. And Paul is laying it out in this letter.
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And so I want us to see that as we go along. And when
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we do get to some of the things that we're going to see in this
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letter, I think Paul is giving us another thing that robs
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joy in chapter 3 and verse 1.
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Look at chapter 3 and verse 1 is what I think is kind of
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a bridge into the second part of the letter. He says,
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finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
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things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard
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for you. Anything stick out in that verse that's
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a little bit odd to you? Okay, he's going to say the same things again.
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All right, but we're going to look at that in a little bit more detail
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in just a moment. Anything else that's a
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little, just a little odd, just a little bit maybe out of place?
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Okay, we're going to— we need to ask ourselves, what does he mean by the
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word safe there? How does that word finally
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strike you? When do you typically see the word finally?
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The end. Are we at the end of the letter? So what
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does Paul mean by saying finally right here with half of the letter left?
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Okay, this really is— does any other version say it differently? I don't think
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that it does. The translators would be doing a little bit of interpretation there,
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but he's basically saying we've sewn up the last subject and
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we're going to move to a different significant point that still falls within
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the purpose of this letter, which is to put the interests of others above our
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own. And so he says, finally, my brethren,
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rejoice in the Lord. For me to say the same things to you is no
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trouble for me, but it's a safeguard for you. What is he talking about
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when he's saying to say the same things again is no trouble for me and
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is a safeguard for you? Is he saying
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that it's no trouble for him to say rejoice in the Lord?
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Perhaps. Let me tell you what I think makes better sense.
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I think what Paul is saying is, I have taught you
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some things in the past. Remember we talked about this in the first week?
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He was there with them on the first missionary journey, and it seems like he
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goes back on the third missionary journey and he does some strengthening and
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some teaching there. And he's taught them some things about what it takes
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to be a Christian, how to live as a Christian. And if you look at
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what's going to take place next in the letter, it looks
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like Paul is going to be talking to them some more about some things that
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he has talked about, he is going to address a subject to a church
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in Asia Minor, in Turkey,
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in the Gentile world that seems
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to be a problem that they face throughout the first-century church. Now, and it
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doesn't trouble us as a church, at least in this specific way,
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but do you find it significant that New Testament writers keep coming,
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especially Paul, keeps coming back to this same subject over and
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over again. If you've done your homework and you've read ahead, what is Paul going
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to be talking about in the next several verses? What kind of stuff?
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What kind of trouble?
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Okay, having confidence in the flesh. And we're going to do some deduction.
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Who in the New Testament seemed to put a lot of confidence in the flesh?
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The Jews. Who am I?
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Where did I come from? Here's the blood that's coursing through my veins,
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and that gives me a reason to have pride in myself. Paul explodes
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that all the time, and he's going to do it some more here.
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Now, and you have that kind of a mindset that's in some way
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influencing the church. You may remember in week 1 that in
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the city of Philippi itself, probably not a lot of Jews.
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There are a lot of religious groups, maybe not a lot of Jews, But this
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influence, this pressure is all throughout the church of the
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first century as they're adjusting to Gentiles being in the body of Christ with Jews.
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This problem keeps popping up and it must be significant
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enough that Paul has to talk to this Gentile church about
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this issue. But if you have people who are
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pressuring you from outside or are within who
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are arrogant and they're putting their confidence
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in their flesh, who they are, what they've done, Can you imagine
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that that would rob joy in the church? So we're going to look at some
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things that rob joy and how to, how to combat that in Philippians chapter 3.
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Paul's going to say several things. Here's the first thing that he says, and if
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you have that sheet, we're going to do as we've been doing throughout this entire
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class is this is going to guide you all the way through the class as
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you have that sheet. He says, number one, that joy comes in avoiding the
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wrong influences. Notice verse 2, it says, beware of the dogs
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Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the false circumcision.
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Just a couple of things there with regard to that. Paul highlights
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the urgency of what he's about to say. How does he do it?
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Beware, bleipete, beware,
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beware, beware. He's saying,
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this is urgent enough that I want to make sure you don't miss it.
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I want you to hear what I'm saying. Beware. Does that ever happen anywhere else
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in the Bible? Where they triple down on something?
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Can you think of anywhere in Scripture? I thought one
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might come to mind. How about Isaiah 6?
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Isaiah's commission. He sees the seraphim with 6 wings
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and what do they say to each other?
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Holy. We sing it. We sang it this morning. Holy,
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holy, holy, absolutely holy.
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Jeremiah does it a couple of times. He says to the
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folks who are living sinfully throughout the week and then they come on the Sabbath
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day to worship, Jeremiah 7:4, they say, the temple of the
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Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. We are
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all good because we're in the house of the Lord. Doesn't matter
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what we're doing to each other and to everybody else, to ourselves during the week.
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We're delivered to do these things. And then Jeremiah, in some
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of his prophecy in the middle of the book, in Jeremiah 22:29 says, oh earth,
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earth, earth, driving it home. And so Paul says,
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beware. Now here's a question. What do you think?
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Is Paul talking about 3 different groups or is he describing
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one group in 3 different ways? Beware of the dogs. Beware of
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the evil workers. Beware of the false circumcision.
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One group. Why do we think it's one group?
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No, I think— I agree with you. I think it's one group. Okay.
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That's a great answer, Gary. Read on down in the text.
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How many problems is Paul dealing with here in the immediate context?
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One. So here's what I think he's doing. I think he is giving us different
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characteristics of these folks, whoever they are.
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And I think it's going to be a good deduction by the time we get
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through that these are Judaizers. These are Jewish Christians who
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are saying that you've got to do things in addition to obey
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the gospel of Christ in order to be a Christian.
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Things that the gospel doesn't say you've got to do. So here's just
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a real quick question before we dig into that. Does that happen in the body
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of Christ? Do people add to what the Word of God says? Do they
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add requirements to what the gospel says?
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Which is the bigger problem? Saying that we don't have to do as much
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as the gospel says or telling people they have to do more than the gospel
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says? Okay, it's a trick question. So can
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I go to the right or the left? Which one does the Lord endorse or
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sanction? It's right in the biblical center. That's where we've
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got to be. And so what Paul is doing is he's saying, look, these guys
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who are coming in and they're laying down these requirements that
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are in addition to the gospel, they are to beware.
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You are to beware of them. All right, so let's look at some of those
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things that he says. He says that these influences are dogs.
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Beware of the dogs. And I know you've heard this, so help me
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with this. What's the significance of calling them dogs?
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Okay, they're homeless, they're aggressive, they attack passersby.
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So Paul's painting a picture for us and he says, these individuals that
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you are to beware of, they are dogs. They are
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hungry mongrels who are waiting for somebody to
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come by so they can attack them. Now,
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dogs, if you'll look in the Old Testament, are one of the unclean animals.
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And so this picture existed in the ancient world, but then you
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get into the New Testament context and you think about during Jesus's work
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during the Gospels, what was the way the Jews looked at
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the Gentiles? Matthew 15:27,
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they're dogs. Do you find it a clever
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and an ironic thing that Paul does is he turns this on its ear.
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He is using this terminology against
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The Jews who are trying to add to the gospel of Christ.
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By the way, at the end of the New Testament in Revelation 22:15,
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John says, without, that is outside of the
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haven and safety of heaven, are the dogs.
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And so what Paul is saying is, I want you to beware of
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these individuals who are lurking about, who are violent,
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maybe not physically violent, but spiritually violent. And they are attacking
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those who are believing in and trying to follow New Testament doctrine.
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Christianity. All right, but then second, he calls them evil workers. What would be the
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significance of that apart from calling them dogs?
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That just describes the nature of what they're doing.
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This is these men. They themselves are workers that are evil.
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It's not just their legalism. It's not innocent.
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It's not harmless. They're active, but they're active in doing the
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wrong thing. So Paul is highlighting what he's about to say,
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and he's going to masterfully address this by saying,
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these guys that would set themselves up as the experts,
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the ones who know everything, who are trying to tell you the
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work they're doing is evil. Now, that then makes this 3rd
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description seem pretty clear. The false
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circumcision. Who's the true circumcision?
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Okay, those who have circumcised their heart, who have let
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the gospel cut and convict their heart.
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Now, why would he mention circumcision of all the things that there are in the
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old law? Okay, it's the covenant sign,
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right? And so he says this false circumcision, they're practicing physical
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circumcision, but Paul is not going to call that word that they use
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to describe themselves. He uses a word that literally means flesh cutters.
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It's a mere cutting of the flesh. It has no spiritual
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significance whatsoever. And so Paul says, here's the guys that we're dealing with.
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They are dogs, they're attackers, they're violent spiritually, they're evil
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workers. What they're doing is not innocent. It's not harmless for them to press
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their matters of judgment. And they are the false circumcision. They're cutting the
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flesh. There is no spiritual significance to what they're doing. And so Paul writes
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to safeguard them. These are people who are contentious and
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they have a selfish spirit. Now, it makes sense that he would say this about
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them because this entire letter is about trying
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to get rid of that attitude in individuals who make up the congregation.
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Do not be self-centered. Do not be self-serving. You put the interest
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of others above yourself. But Paul's going to come along and say, I've got to
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safeguard you against these folks who are making laws
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where I have not made them. They're cutting and they're mangling
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the body of Christ and that can't go unaddressed.
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Yes, sir. Right. So you— and you've got
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2 different problems there and Paul is definitely going to be honing in on the
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one, that spirit, that mindset that was in the Pharisees is going to exist in
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these Judaizing teachers for sure. And by the way, you want to supplement this,
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go to the book of Galatians and you'll see how Paul really addresses
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this problem of Judaizing. All right, so these are the influences. Any comments on
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verse 2 before we move on to the second? All right,
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second thing Paul would indicate here is that joy comes in
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putting Christ above fleshly accomplishments. We're going to see that in verse 3
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through verse 7. Now notice that with me. He says, for we are the true
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circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in
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Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself
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might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put
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confidence in the flesh, I far more, circumcised the
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8th day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
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a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee,
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as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is
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in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to
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me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. So here
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in verse 3, Paul contrasts the Christians with these Judaizers.
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I wouldn't say that verse 2 and verse 3 are exact parallels, but they come
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close to that. You think about this from the terms of they're
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dogs, they're evil workers, they're the false circumcision. What does Paul say
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about true Christians, which he's trying to remind
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the Philippians that as you stay with Christ, that's who you are?
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How does he describe them? What do they do?
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Verse 3. All right, they,
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first of all, spiritual worship. Now contrast that to the Judaizers.
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It didn't, they didn't center on physical acts like circumcision.
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It didn't bind observations of the old law on them and
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those who are converted to Christ. And so he says, we worship God in the
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Spirit according to the Spirit and truth, John 4:24. What else does he say?
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They glory in Christ. It was not a religion that
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gloried in your pedigree or your heritage. That didn't matter in
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Christ. No matter who you are coming into him, that was the
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source of your glory. What else does he say about them?
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They put no confidence in the flesh. What about those Judaizers?
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Oh, it was all about the flesh. And so he's saying, and by the way,
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this is the way Paul likes to use this, the flesh are those who are
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dominated by their baser nature, by their religious arrogance. And so Paul says,
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You already have the truth. You're going to give this up
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to take on the Judaizers. Now, to drive
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the point home, Paul is saying, all right, who is it
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that's telling you this? Who is this that's addressing this legalism problem
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of the Judaizers? Somebody who,
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if anybody knows anything about it, is him. Now,
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Paul is going to lay out his credentials. He's not some disgruntled guy on
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the outside who's just resentful and envious of other people who have achieved something that
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he hasn't achieved. Paul has been to that mountaintop already.
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If you wanted to put it in the modern vernacular, maybe he's saying,
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I have a PhD in Old Testament and I studied
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under the best teachers that there are. I was the star
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student in the class and I have a pedigree
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that is the envy of all those around me. Now,
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let's break down the actual things that he says there. What does he say are
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his accomplishments that he has achieved?
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All right, first of all,
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circumcised the 8th day. What's significant about that?
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What are these Judaizers wanting the Philippian Christians to do?
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Be circumcised. Adult men or mature men,
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those who are in Christ, What's Paul saying about
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himself? The original covenant promise
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that God made with Abraham, Genesis 17:12, I submitted
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to that. So there, you can't do it any better than
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I did it. I followed that law, being under
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that law at the time, as scrupulous as you could.
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Then he says, I'm of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. What's the significance
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in that? Say it again, Joey.
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Okay, he is of Abraham's seed. So first of all, I am a
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Jew, but I think he's saying even more than that.
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What happens to the Israelites first in 722
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BC and then in 606 BC?
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First it happens to the Northern Kingdom, then it happens to the Southern Kingdom.
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They go into captivity. And as they go up there and they come back,
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Some of the people by Paul's day, a great many of them, couldn't tell
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you about their lineage. They don't know who they are. They know they're Jews,
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but they don't know. They can't give you any pedigree, any papers to show that.
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Paul says, not only am I a Jew, not only am
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I of Israel, but I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. Any significance in that?
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What did the tribe of Benjamin give us?
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The tribe of Benjamin. Somebody said it. I heard it. Saul, the first
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king of Israel, perhaps his namesake.
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I wish I knew exactly, you know, the paperwork.
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We got papers on Peaches when we got her, you know, that said she's a
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registered cow, and that means something in the animal world. In the
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Jewish world, if that gives you any appreciation, any of you that have that in
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your background, Paul says, I've got the paperwork.
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I go all the way back to the tribe that gave us the first king.
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And then, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. Well, what's the significance of that?
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Now, Paul's raised in Tarsus of Cilicia, but he knew the mother
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tongue. Look at the book of Acts and it shows us how he could speak
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Greek, he can speak Hebrew, and he's
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conversant in their culture and in their customs.
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And then he says, I'm a Pharisee. Well, what's significant about that? Talking to
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Judaizers. All right, they believed in the resurrection.
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They believed in the afterlife, Acts 23:8. What else?
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Who were the Pharisees? The religious
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leaders. They're the caretakers of the law, Matthew 23:3-4.
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They were strict. Barclay calls them the spiritual athletes
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of Judaism. They were the caretakers of the law.
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So Paul says, I've walked a mile in their shoes. I know
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who they are. I'm a strict— and by the way,
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Jesus condemns a lot about the Pharisees. Does he condemn
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them for their militancy? Does he condemn
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them as long as they're not pressing this for personal strictness?
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It's their hypocrisy. And so Paul is saying,
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look, here's who I am. I wasn't just a Jew. I was
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among those that were looked up to the most as religious
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leaders. And then he says, I was a persecutor
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of the church. And we know all about that from the book of Acts.
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He was wreaking havoc on the church, Acts 8:1-4.
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And so Paul says, I've been where you are. I know the zeal
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of these folks who would press the law so much. And then with
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regard to righteousness blameless, is Paul saying he's sinless?
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What's his point? He held the law in
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high regard. He knew the rituals, the rites, and the
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rules, and he followed them. So here's the question.
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Why has Paul gone to all of this trouble by saying, look, beware of
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these— this group of people over here, these dogs, evil workers, false circumcision,
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who put the glory in the flesh. We don't do that.
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But by the way, here's all the stuff that I had. Why does Paul
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use himself as an example in this way?
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He knows about what he speaks, but what does he say in the text?
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What does he do with all of that?
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For sure, if that was important, then I
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would have put that up front in this letter. You would know that. But he
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says something else in the text. So in your
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mind, if you will, take those 6 things that he said specifically and think
25:28
of them as like pieces of paper. He wads them up and he throws
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them in the trash. He says, these things that were
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glorying by earthly standards, everybody that I
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had rubbed elbows with looked up to me because of who I was and what
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I had done. And he says, I threw all of that away. Why did he
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throw it all away? For Christ.
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This is another example. Now, I want you to walk back through the book for
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just a moment. As Paul walks through this,
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The thread that has been tied together in all these examples is
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that these individuals put something
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or someone ahead of themselves.
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And for— they put Christ ahead of themselves. What did
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Paul do in chapter 1? What did he give up for Christ?
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Chapter 1, verse 12 through 26, the first example. What does
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Paul give up for Christ?
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His freedom. He's a free man. He preaches Christ.
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He's in prison for that. That's— this is a prison epistle. He's writing it from
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there. Number 2, what did Paul— sorry, what did Jesus
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give up for us?
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Divine equality, home in heaven,
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the position that he held. Came to this earth. What did Timothy
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give up for Christ and for Paul and
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for others? Look at chapter 2 and verse 21,
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his own interests. What did Epaphroditus give up
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for Paul and for the Philippians?
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Concerned about his own health and his own safety for them. What is Paul
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giving up in order to promote Christ?
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The trophies, he's thrown them all in the trash.
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He said, those things that were gained to me are counted but lost.
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Before we move to the next point, why is he telling Philippi this?
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They're probably rank-and-file Gentiles.
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Here's an example of people who are putting pressure on them, who are trying to
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get them to turn away from the true gospel and to follow their additions
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to what he is telling them. And Paul is saying, you've already got the truth,
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but here is a group of people who are putting themselves ahead of Christ and
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look at the result of that. I don't want you to follow that. All right,
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any thoughts on verses 3 through 7 before we move to the next section?
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Third thing that Paul says is that true joy comes in
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knowing Christ. Look at verse 8 through verse 11. Paul says,
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more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing
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value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, For whom I have suffered the
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loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ
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and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from
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the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from
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God on the basis of faith, that I may know him
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and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed
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to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from
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the dead. Paul's saying it's not who we used to be.
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It's who Christ has made us to be. In verse 8, Paul says he sees
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the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Right here
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is why to die is gain, and it's also how you quit looking out
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for your own personal interests. Your viewpoint on
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the journey to joy, climbing the mountain of joy, depends on where
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you've reached, the point where you are. I don't know if any of
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you have ever hiked up a mountain,
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you typically start down low and you begin
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to make your way up. You can't see the summit from
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the foot of the mountain. And what we may call this, the contrast,
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is the valley of self and the mountaintop of Christ.
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It's only when you— and by the way, Paul's saying you're going to be climbing
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all the way until you cross out of this life into eternity,
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but you're heading toward that peak. To see the perspective
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of Christ. And that's where great joy comes, in being like
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Christ, in pursuing Christ. And so Paul says joy comes
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when you know Christ. Now, if you look in verses 9 through 11, Paul evaluates
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the trade he made from Judaism to Christianity.
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He traded his righteousness for Christ's righteousness.
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He trades the knowing someone or something To
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knowing Christ. Now, what do you think Paul means when he says,
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I want to know Christ? He says
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it in verse 8 and he says it in verse 10.
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Okay. Okay. Intimacy.
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To be found in him. What does that mean?
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Okay. All right. So it's the whole life experience of being in Christ and growing
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in him as he directs us in that. Here's what's significant.
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Paul's not a new Christian when he writes this. Think about where Paul
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has already been. By the way, where is he again? How did
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he get there? Preaching Christ.
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He's been a Christian for a couple of decades by this point.
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He not only has been a Christian for a couple of decades, but look at
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what all he has done. He has gone around the known world
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throughout the Roman Empire. He's gone to every major place in the empire
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and he's preached Jesus. Do you feel like he knows Christ pretty well?
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As Bill says, this is about more than just head knowledge. This is more
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than about information. It's about what we do as we come
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to know him and by not being satisfied at the level at which we
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know him. And I, perhaps this is a dumb analogy,
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way to illustrate this, but the biblical idea of
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knowing is about relationship. It's not just information.
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I'm still getting to know Kathy and I always will be.
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It's a relationship. And in any relationship, you think about whatever
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relationship you want to parallel that, it's always about growing in your
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knowledge of the person. And notice the order that Paul puts it in. It's to
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do and then to know. Paul had done what it
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took to become a Christian. Acts chapter 22 and verse 16, and in doing God's
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will, he came to know Christ. Relationships don't come without information.
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So how do you build your relationship with somebody? You've got to know them.
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You've got to know about them. You've got to know their likes and their dislikes.
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You've got to know how to please them. And as you do, and as you
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act in the relationship with that person, you know them based on their responses
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and based on their reactions, whether they're positive or negative. And that's
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what Paul is saying. This deep deeper level, this experiential knowledge that he's talking
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about comes on the basis of doing, putting principles
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into practice. And so in his relationship with Christ,
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Paul says that he had suffered much for
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him. He needed to know how to be covered
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with his righteousness, verse 9, and he wanted to share in his glorious resurrection,
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verse 10 and verse 11. He needed him past, present, and future.
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But then number 4, joy comes in forgetting the past and forging toward
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the future. Notice verses 12 through 16, Paul says, not that I've already attained it,
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that I've already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold
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of that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
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Brethren, I don't regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing
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I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
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I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God
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in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this
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attitude. And if anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal
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that also to you. However, let us keep living by the same standard
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to which we have attained. Real quickly, when did Christ lay
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hold on Paul? On the road to Damascus.
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And when he did, his life changed in a dramatic way.
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It led him to the pivotal point in his life in which he's imprisoned for
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preaching Jesus Christ. Notice very quickly that Paul mentions the
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purpose in verse 13. As runners focus on what's ahead,
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Paul's not distracted by the past. In his case,
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past accomplishments. Maybe you look at your own life and you think
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past mistakes, past failures, past shortcomings. Paul had
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plenty of both. In this context, he's talking about all the things that he had
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that were behind him. You know, a church is not doing its
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best, a person, a relationship, if they're focused on what they have been,
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and what the past looks like and not on what's coming.
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And so that's the goal. Verse 14, Paul mentions in verse 14,
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finish the race. And then he mentions the effort in verse
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14. Paul's reaching forward, he's stretching toward the finish
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line, and he urges them to do the same thing, to have the same attitude
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and the same standard. Paul says, we're not mailing this
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in. We're not just going through the motions.
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We are striving to our very best until we get
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to the end, and we're not going to stop till we get there. And then
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finally, Paul shows that joy comes in working toward the right goal.
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Before Paul gets to really what is the climax
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of the letter, he is going to close with another example. In verse 17
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through 21, starting there, he says, brethren, join in following
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my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
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For many walk, of whom I often told you and now tell you again weeping,
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that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,
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whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their
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mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is
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in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus
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Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with
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the body of his glory, by the exertion of the power that he has even
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to subject all things to himself. All right,
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so think about the 5 or 6 examples
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that we have already seen in the book. What do they all have in common?
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Paul, Christ. Timothy, Epaphroditus.
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Paul, Paul. What do
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they all have in common? They are examples.
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Can you follow those guys? To the man.
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Now he gives this example. Are we to follow these guys?
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We're not. Why? Why at the heart of it are we not to
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follow the guys in verse 18 and verse 19?
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Somebody tell me, how does he describe them?
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They're enemies of the cross. What else?
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Their end is destruction. Their God
36:27
is their belly. Let's just
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walk through them. Their end is destruction. That's their destiny.
36:35
So if the Philippians line up behind them, what's going to be their end?
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That's Paul's point. Number 2, their God is their appetite.
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How does that fit into this? These Judaizers serving
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self, the flesh, Some say maybe it's the food laws of Judaism.
36:52
I don't know, whatever it is, these are guys that are very fleshly oriented.
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It's who you are in the flesh that matters. And so Paul
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says, that's how you would describe them. Their glory is in their shame.
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They're boasting of things that they ought to be ashamed of.
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And then he says, their mind is set on earthly things.
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Judaism is centered not on the will of Christ and the will of heaven because
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there's a new covenant. It's centered on the
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fleshly things. Paul says in Colossians 3:2, in another prison epistle,
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set your affections on things above and not on things of the earth. And then
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down in verse 5, he says, therefore consider the members of your body as dead
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to immorality, impurity, passion, and evil desire and greed that amounts
37:36
to idolatry. They have the wrong God, they have the wrong goal, and they have
37:40
the wrong glory. And so then Paul ends the discussion, as we've seen,
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with a positive in verse 20 and 21. He says, unlike them,
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you're citizens citizenship is in heaven. You are looking to
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the reward that Christ is going to bring. And then
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not only that, He is going to change your vile body, the body of
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this humiliation that's wracked with pain, that's destined to die.
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The God with this kind of power that raised Jesus from the dead is going
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to do that for you as well.
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We can describe this as the sure return. Christ is
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coming again. The splendid redemption where he is going to—
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and just read in Romans 8:17-39
38:24
or 1 Corinthians 15:34-58 to see what he's going to do with these
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bodies according to his power and the sufficient resource to make that
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happen. Paul is saying, this Christ that I want you to follow,
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the one who was raised from the dead, is the one who has the energy
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and the power to make this happen in the end. How this fits in the
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overall context of the book of Philippians is Paul has said,
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there are people on the outside who are pressuring
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you to believe that what you have been taught is not right.
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And they are an example in this of what not to do.
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They put the glory in themselves and on this earth,
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and it cannot save. You've already been taught you have to turn away from that
39:06
in order to do it. And what you're turning away from is what you were
39:09
taught at the beginning is the only thing that will suffice. And it
39:13
makes you miserable. Paul wants this church to have joy.
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Paul wants this church to have joy.
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And there are a lot of different ways that joy can be deprived.
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But one way that we don't often look at is those who come along and
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try to add to the requirements that God makes to make Christianity harder
39:33
than God does. That can't be allowed to stand any more
39:37
than those who try to undermine the foundations of the authority
39:41
of Christ. Now Paul is going to take all of that and apply it
39:46
to a very specific situation on his way to
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encouraging them to seize the joy that he wants them to have
39:53
by the task that he's going to give them. We'll see more about that next
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week. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the
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power of your word and the beautiful truth that it contains.
40:05
Thank you for the words that you inspired
40:10
your writer Paul to write down,
40:14
to remind us that we don't have reason to glory in
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who we are and what earthly position that
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we occupy, how other people look at us. But what matters most of all
40:26
is knowing your Son. And God,
40:30
we never can sufficiently know him. We're never satisfied
40:34
with how much we know him. We want to know him better. We know,
40:37
Father, that requires us to continue to walk faithfully according to the same
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rule as that which was laid down in your word.
40:45
Help us, Father, to build our knowledge and information of who Jesus
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is. But help us, Father, to trust you more and through that to know
40:53
him through the experience that comes from a true knowledge of
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your word. Help us, Father, through that to put the interests of others above
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ourselves. And out of that, Father, help us to,
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to be fulfilled with the joy that you intend for us to have through
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your Son Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
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We are dismissed.