[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find
[email protected] dot. Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: When we first got married, probably like a lot of young couples, we didn't have much furniture, so everything we got was a lot of stuff we really needed. Like, I remember we had some milk crates that were used to hold our tv, and we had a card table. And even though at that time we wanted more furniture, we really loved those kind of moments and those memories. But then her side of the family and my side of the family started to donate to us a lot of their old stuff. And if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have had a place to sit, our tv or ourselves. And so we're very grateful for that. Between that and the stuff we found on the side of the road, we were able to furnish our house.
But if you've ever been in that position before, yes, you did get a lot of stuff you really needed, maybe from mom and dad. But you might also remember that there was maybe a time that you also got some stuff that you necessarily didn't want, but they gave it to you anyway. Well, that's what happened to me after we were getting different things from them. They had mentioned us. Hey, Andrew, we have this really big tub of all your stuff from your childhood. We want you to come by the house and pick it up. To which I said, oh, no, you can keep it. To which she said, no, I don't want it. And so a lot of you know what I'm talking about with that tub.
It's the tub where maybe your kids come up to you and they give you their coloring page and like, hey, put this on the refrigerator, but instead you put it in that special filing cabinet. You know what I'm talking about? But the stuff you keep, you know, is maybe those certificates you keep those awards from their childhood. And so I had in this box that she had given me, you know, scrapbooks, yearbooks, memories, newspaper articles different. I remember there were Sports Illustrated copies of when Florida State used to win national championships. I had all of these things in this box. I usually didn't really visit the box that much, except maybe to show Cruz and Cam pictures of Daddy's bowl cut at Brandon and Cindy's wedding. But other than that, I didn't really visit that box very much. And what was interesting about that box, it was so massive that we couldn't get it up the attic. I mean, it's huge, it's heavy, it's awkward. And then what happened for us, we kind of started to be like, well, what do we do with it? It was one of those things where, like, well, we don't necessarily want to get rid of. Because, don't get me wrong, I was very grateful for the memories that were in there. But over time, when you have this massive box and you don't really know what to do with it, it kind of becomes, in a way, a little bit of a burden. So here it is today. This is where it sits in our garage, right next to our hot water heater, because I can't get it up the attic and I don't know what to do with it. And the reason why I give you a picture of that box, it reminds me a lot of the text that we're going to be looking at today. That in that box was a lot of records of different achievements or records of different memories growing up. And there's nothing wrong with the knowledge that was shown in those report cards, or lack of. There's nothing wrong with the achievements and their certificates that are in that box. But we all know that while knowledge is good and achievements are good, we have to be after something way deeper than that.
And you think about, we have to have knowledge. You know, without knowledge, you can't drive a car, you'll go past the speed limit, you won't know how to operate the car. But we all understand that if it's only knowledge, when we operate that car, it becomes dangerous. We don't have the wisdom to say, hey, put my phone down. We need the wisdom of somebody else, also outside of us, that knows the laws of the land, that has driven a car. That's why there's a learner's permit before we're given a license. We need more than knowledge. There's nothing wrong with accolades, achievements, and we would probably all say, not just when we were kids, but even now, it's the opportunity to achieve something that oftentimes does inspire us, encourages us and challenges us to want to do better. Nothing wrong with what we know. There's nothing necessarily wrong with what we achieve, but it can't just be based around that. It can't be based on what we know and what we achieve. But as we're going to talk about today, as we listen to a very honest, raw, real testimony of a high achieving pharisee, Paul, that it's not about what we know, it's not about what we achieve on our own, but it's about knowing Christ and connecting ourselves to the one that achieved our salvation, and that's Jesus Christ.
So what we're going to read about today is Paul in Philippians three is dealing with, let me tell you, a very heavy topic, and that is legalism.
What's happened here is there's a group of actual believers in the church, and they're called Judaizers, and we'll talk about them in just a second. What they were doing was sprinkling in their own traditions, their own ceremonial laws and their own ceremony end with the gospel to the point that it actually wasn't the gospel at all.
And if you're like me, I grew up hearing that term a lot, legalism. And here was the challenge I faced. So I was trying to see if maybe you guys did too. I used to think, well, if I obey, am I a legalist? No. There is a big difference between obedience and legalism. And in fact, I'll just give you this definition of legalism. Legalism is excessive adherence to a law or a formula. It's dependence on moral law keeping more than spiritual faith. What you notice in this definition, who's the focus of legalism?
Me. What does legalism feed?
Ego. And so the danger of legalism is that we sometimes might try to group it in with obedience. It's not, and I'll explain it like this.
When you think about obedience, obedience is a love motivated response, while legalism is an obligation based response that you choose to obey because you love. It's kind of like John 1415 when Jesus says, if you love me, you keep my commandments.
But legalism is focused on what I know, as was talked about in the early service, one of the guys that did scripture reading said, you know, crossing the t's and have I dotted the I's? And the danger of that, it becomes focused on who I am and what I'm doing. And I'll kind of explain it like this. One of my buddies said, a good way to think about it is right now in Madison, if you and I were to get out in our car and to drive out of this place. We're going to try as best we can to stay near the speed limit. We're not going to recklessly drive, we're not going to do a bunch of unlawful things. Part of it is because we're obligated to do so. But you know what's not in that law? There is nowhere in that law that you need to go take someone a meal.
There's no one, nowhere in the law that says you must cut your neighbor's grass or check on that elderly lady down the road. Why do you do that? Well, love which one of those two lasts longer, but then which one of those two feeds fear, shame, uncertainty, how we really know what is, what is a reflection and an inner look at the heart.
And so what I love about this text is this, Paul, don't get me wrong, it's kind of one of those balances of, he gives a strong challenge and a strong comfort. And I'll go ahead and say he gives very strong words for the legalist because he sees how dangerous that mindset is. But I love how he handles this. He doesn't say, like, man, I can't believe those people. I would never be like that. Then guess what that would be.
Legalism.
I love how he, in humility, says, you know, this is dangerous. And if it makes its way into the church, it's a never ending cycle of fear and shame. But at the other side of it, I have to acknowledge, I used to do the exact same thing, too.
I used to be a legalist. I used to only be focused on what I did, what I achieved. And here's the thing about Paul, y'all.
If Paul had a garage, he wouldn't have had one box. He would have had like ten of all the things he achieved. They would have had to reinforce his trophy cases with all the trophies that he got at winner's circle. I mean, this guy had it all, knew it all. He was achieving all of these things. But the reality was, for Paul, he gets to a point and says, you know, I was on this trajectory when it was focused on me, what I knew that I was about to Miss Christ.
But on that road, I saw him and I made this 180. Here's what I love about this text. He doesn't just call out legalism, he gives the path out of legalism.
And the 180 Paul had in his life is also the 180 we can all have. And I was telling Brandon this past week, we always get together to kind of talk about what we're talking about. And I said, you know, it's kind of interesting. I don't know if this happened on purpose, but I had the topic on pride, so I studied on pride for two weeks. Now I get the topic of legalism. So heavy, heavy. And I was excited to see what was next. Unity in Christ is next. So I'm really a little more joyful. But at the same time, I'll go ahead and tell you that in getting ready for this, it's one of those that when I saw the subheadings of my Bible, when I saw the description of liberty over legalism, I was kind of like, oh. But then the more I got into it, the more I enjoyed it. But I also. The more freeing it felt to study the truth of the gospel. So I hope that's what happens with. What happened with Paul is what happens with us. So let's get into the text together.
Finally, my brothers, he says, now, this is funny to me that he says, finally, because if you know how many chapters are in Philippians, he's still got two more chapters. It's kind of like when I get up here, and I'm like, all right, last point. And then you're like, really? It's been 20 minutes, and you're still on that point, man. Drive it home. So what I decided to do, I'm gonna go with this clock right here, 832. We got a lot of time today, so we'll get to the finally in just a little bit. But here's what he says, finally, rejoice.
As if he's not been talking about rejoicing the first two chapters. What does he mean, finally? He's already talked about rejoicing. In your circumstances, rejoice in what you don't see at times. Rejoicing in uncertainties, rejoicing in your relationships, choosing joy instead of pride. He's talked about joy for two chapters. Why is he saying finally? Here's why. He's trying to make sure we understand that. It may not seem like it, but the more you dig into it, Joy has a lot to do with its impact on legalism.
He's repeating this. Number one, because he knows that anything worth remembering right is being repeated. But number two, he knows that it's very difficult, we might even say impossible, to simultaneously be a legalist and have joy.
And we've known, maybe in our own lives, where we've seen how nothing has killed joyous or been a kill joy quicker than legalism. But at the same time, Joy is what protects us from that legalism.
So notice the strong words he gives here. Beginning in verse two, he said, I need you to look out for the dogs, the evildoers, those that mutilate the flesh. Some of your translations and your bibles will read. They preach and teach a false circumcision.
What is he talking about when he says dogs? Because if we were to call somebody a dog today, that is what we call politically incorrect, right? That's. We would not say that.
And when I also, though, hear dog, I think of, like, Baxter sitting in my lap, and I'm patting him like, that's not the dog he's referring to. He's giving them a word image that they were very familiar with in their day. What dogs did was they roamed the streets. They would go outside of people's houses, sometimes in people's houses, eat their food. And then what would happen is these dogs would get different diseases, and they would carry their disease from one place to another place to another place. And so he's trying to give them a picture of how pervasive these dogs and these evildoers are. And here's what he says that they're doing. They're mutilating the flesh. Here's who he's talking about.
The legalists he's referring to are a group of what we call Judaizers. And the Judaizers, what they taught was this, that, yes, it's good to believe in Jesus. Yes, that's okay and all. But what you need to also understand is you have to do some of the ceremonies, some of the traditions that have been done before. But one of the ones they were mentioning that they had to do is to be circumcised.
But you and I know, based on the book of Galatians, Paul said, there's neither jew, nor greek, nor slave, nor free, nor male, nor female, nor circumcised or uncircumcised. If we've put on Christ, we're what? We're one with Christ. They are trying to bind a ceremony, a tradition on them. But here's the danger of what you'll notice here. He doesn't say circumcision, does he? And I'm going to try to say this as appropriate for this crowd as possible.
He's saying, basically the Pharisees and the religious leaders, but also, now these judaizers were like, hey, if you really want to show God how much you love him, you won't just circumcise yourself. You'll actually mutilate yourself.
And the reason why? Paul mentions not just circumcision, but mutilating the flesh, the step beyond circumcision. He's showing that legalism never satisfies that. When we're legalistic about one thing, it's easy to be legalistic, right? About the what? The very next thing. And in fact, if you notice in your Bibles, one of my cross references, I think in my new american standard bible, cross referenced me to Elijah and the prophets of Bel with that word mutilate.
Do y'all remember those men trying to achieve a call down from Bel?
If you remember, they were trying to tell Elijah, no, Bel is the one true God. And I Elijah is like, no, no, no, yahweh is the one true God. And they said, no, we'll be able to call fire down. And so what did they do? They started with what?
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Bel.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: And they're calling bel crickets. And then Bell still doesn't show up. And so what do they do? They start dancing and acting a fool.
Still no Bell.
And because the calling out didn't satisfy, and now because the dancing didn't satisfy, what do they start doing?
Mutilating themselves.
That's what Paul's trying to get them to understand.
Those dogs that are making their way in and the danger of them. It's this never ending cycle, and there's a danger that is attached to it.
Why the strong language?
Well, it is just as dangerous to be religiously legalistic, just as it is to be irreligious.
The dangers that come with that are the same. In fact, notice what he goes on to say. He says, we are the circumcision. He's drawing a picture back to in obedience. That decision they made to put on Christ in baptism, just like in the old law, circumcision set you apart. Now through baptism, Christ joined. When we join ourselves with him, we are now that circumcision because of what? By the word of the spirit and glorying in Christ. Let's think about that phrase for just a second. Paul says, it's not about what we checked off. Do we cross our t and dot our eye? No. He says, no, I don't glory in what I know. Because what I know, if that's the end, I don't want that reward. He's actually saying, it's when I glory in Christ.
The danger of legalism is it never sees sufficiency in Jesus Christ.
It's this constant idea of what I do. And I'll kind of give it like this as an example. I try to put it in a chart to put it side by side.
Legalism is based on what I do and know.
Glorying in Christ is focused on what Jesus has done and Jesus knows.
Legalism is about me. It feeds an ego.
Number two, if you see up here, it's about Jesus. But notice this one. Legalism is about do. Now, I wanted to explain this one a little bit. There still is due for us as followers of Christ.
James talks about faith without works is dead. But what is that? Motivation. If we love him, we keep that commandment.
We do because of done. Basically, our ability to obey is because of the love he has given us.
We wear out, we tire. Christ does not. He doesn't wear out, he doesn't tire. And so because God loves me, I can obey. Like again, Paul, why are you talking about this now? You've been talking about all these joyful things. And keep in mind, he's not just talking to an individual, he's talking to the church.
Have you ever been a part of a situation where legalism has split a church, hurt a church?
In fact, you know, and I share this illustration not because we're any better than them or I am. We all struggle with it. But y'all may have heard of the true story about a church in Mayfield, Kentucky, that they had this new preacher that wore a hat, and he came in one day and he had his hat on, and he was trying to figure out where to put that hat. And so he decided just to put it on the back pew. Well, one of the leaders in the church was like, well, I don't want him, you know, his hat to get sat on. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put a peg in the wall right when you walk in so he can put his hat on it.
Well, the problem was there had never been a peg in that wall.
And so then what happened was people started taking sides, and then they started getting factions of groups of people together.
And before you knew it, that church split. And I looked it up because this illustration is now dated, because the church has since changed its name. But that church went right down the road. You know what they called themselves? The anti peg church. We laugh, but the reality is it shows you the danger of hanging your hat on things that do not matter, but also hanging our hat on things other than the gospel.
It's dangerous because legalism either makes us feel superior to other people or it makes us feel inferior.
Neither of those things honor God. But think about what also it drives us to be. It drives us to have fear, to have pride, and to have shame.
But notice when he says, glory in Christ, what he's saying. I don't glory in what I've done, but I glory in what Christ has done.
And I know this might be an odd thing to put it, but we're going to come back to this question.
Do we really want to stand before God with what we've done?
And as we think about that, look what he says next. He says, so I put no confidence in the flesh.
Can you imagine how freeing but how opposite that was for Paul when he had been preaching what what I had done? See, the people like Paul, they used to walk around with their arms out, and they would have little tassels that had all of their knowledge, and they would point out the knowledge of the things that they knew.
But now he's saying, I have no confidence in that. Imagine the freedom he now felt by saying that.
And so now he gives his resume.
And this to me is his humility, but also his challenge to us as modern readers to think, hey, if there is, like I going through a few weeks ago, if there's a little pride in me, lord, protect me, give me humility. He says, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. He said, in fact, if anyone else has a reason for confidence in the flesh, I actually have more. I was circumcised on the 8th day. Check.
I was of the people of Israel. Check.
I was of the tribe of Benjamin. That was a big check. You know, they were the ones that, you know, King Saul, the first king, came from what, the tribe of Benjamin? You know, they used to have this phrase when they would go places, they would say, after you, Benjamin.
He's like, man, I had the status. He was a Hebrew, of Hebrews and the law. Oh, man, I was a pharisee. And as to zeal, I was so zealous, I was persecuting the church. As to righteousness under the law, I was blameless. But here's what he's about to get at. Whatever in life makes me the focus, what makes me the hero is no gospel at all, he says. So whatever I gained, I counted it as loss for the sake of Christ.
I love what Robert shared in his thoughts this morning when he said and drew us back to what Paul said to the church in Corinth.
Righteousness is found in him.
That's where that comes from. He said, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. It's for his sake I've suffered the loss of all things. And I count those things as rubbish.
That's a funny word to me. Rubbish. It makes me think of a person in England, say, use the rubbish can, or something like that. But rubbish is really a very. Some translations say lost. That is a very mild word for what is really supposed to be understood in the Greek as garbage, human or animal waste or dung.
He's saying, my resume, my own righteousness, what I knew, the t's I crossed and the I's that I dotted, all of those things are rubbish if I don't know Christ and the power of him.
And so I posed this question to you earlier, and I want you to think about it for just a second.
Do we really want. Because here's the thing. We're all going to have this in common. We're all going to one day stand before God.
And when we do stand before God, do you and I really want it to be based on what we know, what we've achieved, and what we've done?
And to kind of illustrate this, a few. Well, actually, now, it's been about a year, a year and a half ago, Cruz and several his buddies, I took them to Chuck E. Cheese, and I'll go ahead and tell you, it was partly selfish. I love recycled pizza and animatronics, so I was really excited. And by the way, the Huntsville one, by the way, some of them are getting, like, modern, and they have the tv screens. Huntsville still has an animatronic. One of its eyes is stuck. So it's kind of creepy, but still loved it. Still loved it. And when we got there, they had this cardinal to where they could play unlimited games. And we were gonna be there for hours.
And so they would swipe that card and play a game. Swipe that card, play. And so then I was noticing, you know, growing up around Aladdin's castle and Chuck E. Cheese is growing up. I was like, you know, guys, I know y'all having a good time, but can I show y'all where all the tickets are? Like, where you really get the tickets? It's not in skeeball, guys. Y'all are getting, like, one every time you do it. Let's. Let's move to something else. And so I showed them this one that, at minimum, every time you were getting ten tickets, sometimes 20, sometimes 30. And so these four and five boys, they were just lining up at this one, like, next. And then ten tickets, getting the bag line. Ten tickets, ten tickets. Hours, getting ten tickets. Ten tickets. Ten tickets, ten tickets. And if you couldn't think it could get even better.
The person that's at Chuck E. Cheese said, hey, knowing that it's Cruz's birthday, you know, if you want, he could get in what is called the ticket blaster.
And basically what this is, is all the tickets. But I pointed out to Cruz, I said, hey, do you notice what's on the ground? It says 1000 tickets. It's a 1000 ticket card. Put your foot on it. And so when that thing blows, you just reach down and grab it. And that way we can use that for later. Right? So he had all these tickets. He's able to hand all the tickets out to his friends. They've been playing for hours with all the stuff they collected and all that they earned, and they walk with those tickets. This is not him, but they walk with those tickets up to that little counter. The lady takes the ticket, she's reading their card to see how much they have. And she said, all right, boys, you can get anything in this box.
So you're telling me I worked for, like, 4 hours, and I get a friendship bracelet?
Like, I don't want what's in that box. I want what's up top. Like, I want the stuffed animal. I want the remote controlled cardinal. I want the dartboard. Like, those are the things I want. I don't want what's in that box. Well, you can't afford that. But I've been working for hours. Yeah, but you can't afford. I mean, you could come here for four years every day, you probably still wouldn't get that remote control car.
And so the reason I say that, that's what Paul is getting at here. Do you and I really want what we can afford with our own righteousness?
Do we really want to stand before him with what we know and what we've achieved? Paul said, no. That kind of mindset, not only is it like a dog bringing its filth everywhere, but the danger is it could cause us to also miss Christ. So here's what he said. I don't have a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through Christ. Those words would have been heavy to a group of people that were trying to bond their ceremonies and traditions on the new believers. He says, the righteousness that I want depends on faith.
And these are the two things he mentions.
This is kind of the practical standpoint. He says, here's how it looks. You have to get to know him in the power of his resurrection. That's number one.
If you're in here this morning and you made that decision to put on Christ in baptism.
You're living out the gospel story of the death, the burial, and the resurrection. And when you came out of that water, it was no longer you in the control center. It was him, the Holy Spirit, living inside of you.
And I don't know about y'all. I kind of wish there would be a period after that, and he wouldn't say, what's next?
Because he says, hey, get to know the power of his resurrection. But then you know what he says next. Oh, and by the way, you need to share in his suffering.
What he's saying is, as Christians, when we go into that watery grave, we weren't just saved from something. We're now saved to something, and that, too, is to share in his suffering. But you read that, like, probably I did, and you're like, uh, okay. I remember this point in my life where I was like, yeah, I want to follow Christ, but I don't want to give up this relationship. Yeah, I want to follow Christ, but I don't want to say no to myself and what I know and what I'm used to, and I want to do this, but I also don't want to have to give up this.
It would be really nice at first, we think to maybe just end it there, but there is so much power in sharing in his sufferings. Here's why.
That word share in the Greek comes from the word koinonia, which is oftentimes used to describe the community of faith. But in this instance, what it means when he says that we're sharing in his sufferings, we're having fellowship and joint participation and partnership in his sufferings.
So what he's really saying is that when Jesus was beaten with those rods and those whips, and it's almost like you are right beside him. And as he's carrying that beam, you have the opportunity to carry that beam, too. And as people are mocking him, if you're walking with him, they're actually mocking you. And then they lay him down on that cross, and then as they're driving those nails into his body, can you imagine for just a second if you locked eyes with Jesus in that moment, the connection you would feel with him?
And the reason why I ask you that is if you've ever suffered with someone, has it not taken that relationship to a whole other level?
There's an honesty, there's a realness, a transparency. We might say there is a relationship to that one.
But I grew up hearing that phrase, share in his sufferings, and I was like, so do I just go out there and, like, put myself in tough situations? Well, no. So do I just go out there, like, look, God, I suffered? No, because then that would be legalism. So what does it really look like to share in his sufferings? These are a few ideas.
We suffer with Christ when our behavior in suffering is like his.
When people disagreed with Jesus, when people mocked Jesus, how did he handle it? Y'all remember on the cross, people were making fun of him, and he said, father, forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing.
And he was so much thinking outside of himself that he offered forgiveness and new life to the thief that didn't check off the boxes. They didn't cross the t's or dot the I's.
And then if it couldn't stop there. Do y'all remember back in John 13 when I. Jesus told his disciples to go into the upper room, and, you know, as he's walking up those steps, he's thinking, man, I'm about to tell them about the most important moment in history that's about to happen. I'm gonna die. And the mill is gonna define that and help explain that. And he goes into the upper room, and what happens? The disciples are arguing about which one of them is gonna be the greatest.
And in the middle of their argument. I love how John 13 says this, knowing that God had put all the power in his hands.
Now, put yourself in Jesus's shoes. There's people in that room that are about to betray you, that are about to deny you. They're arguing about which one of them is going to be goat, and you have been given by God. He said, hey, listen, here's all the power. Do in this moment what you would do. What do you think we might do? I don't know. I was thinking I might strike them down a little bit, like, you know, give him a little side stitch or something like that. It says, knowing he had all the power in the world given unto him, he took an apron, got a water basin, got down on his hands and knees and started to wash their feet.
He leveraged his power to serve.
The other thing is this. We share in Christ's sufferings. When the cause of our suffering is the same of his.
We don't suffer so other people can see us. We don't suffer so people notice us.
But the other part is this. It kind of goes back to chapter two, when Paul talks about how I used to just hang my hat on my own pride. And then that humility actually protected me from that. And even though it brought difficulty, what I noticed, it was for the benefit of other people.
I don't think you just get there instantly. I think the more we share in his sufferings, the more we see that our suffering can be a ministry to other people.
As we all think about this text this morning, maybe as you think about the text, you kind of think about it like that tupperware container of stuff, just like knowledge, just like tradition, just like zeal, just like achievements and accolades. There's nothing wrong with a lot of those things we're zealous about, that are traditions, that are things we hold onto. But at the end of the day, maybe, like Paul, you thought, man, it's this never ending path. It breathes fear, shame and. But yet I read one John, and all he talks about is, in Christ, we have this confidence.
So maybe we look at that box and we think, all right, I don't want what I can afford.
And so maybe you're here today and you want to make that decision to get to know Christ in the power of his resurrection. You've never made that decision to put on Christ in baptism. You've been thinking about it.
But to begin that journey before you share in his sufferings, get to know him. Maybe you're here today and like we all have, we kind of glory in what we've achieved, what we've known, but we've seen what we achieve and what we've known and where that's gotten us. I pray that we can all count those things as rubbish, as lost, as garbage, if we don't know Christ. So let's stand and sing this song and if you need prayers, come now we stand and sing this song.
