Troy a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian Part 2
Philippians 3 1-3
*...Philippians chapter 3 verse 1, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation for we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh."
*The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian." They are found really in verse 3. He gives us these three qualities of a true Christian, "Who worship in the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh."
*What is a Christian? We could say he's a believer. What is a Christian? We could say he's a child of God. What is a Christian? We could say he's a disciple. We could say he's a follower. He is one who loves God. But how could we say it better than to say a Christian is one who worships in the Spirit of God, glories in Christ Jesus and puts no confidence in the flesh? What a surpassing definition of the true Christian.
*And the distinctive qualities of the true Christian are indeed found in that third verse. But before we get to the third verse, Paul has a contrast in mind in the first two verses after his brief introduction. And by virtue of that contrast we see in more bold relief the reality of the distinctive qualities of the true Christian. For the true Christian, as defined in verse 3, is compared to the false religionists of verse 2 who are called dogs, evil workers and are even called rather than the false circumcision, the actual word is the mutilation. This characterizes those who are not true Christians.
*Now as you well know this matter of comparing those with false association with God alongside with the true is a repeated theme in Scripture and thus a repeated theme in our study here through the years. It has always been the ploy of Satan to infiltrate the true church with the false, to sow the tares among the wheat. It has always been the ploy of Satan to allow perverse men to rise up within the congregation to lead it astray. It has always been the ploy of Satan to allow and energize grievous wolves to attack the flock and tear it to shreds with false doctrine. It has always been the call of God on the life of the minister to be nourished up in the words of the faith, that is the Scripture, and sound doctrine in order to refute the heretics, in order to warn the congregation of intrusion of error. So this matter of true and false simply draws the battle lines where they have been drawn through the ages as the people of God endeavor to stand against the people of Satan who usually are disguised as angels of light, wanting to infiltrate the church.
*So, what we see with the Apostle Paul here is really a warning, a warning for the purpose as he uses the term in verse 1 of safeguard, a warning about false religionists who will endeavor to confuse, who will endeavor to debilitate to destroy the work of the gospel. The counterfeit, always around, always on Satan's agenda, always a threat. Sometimes a profound spiritual truth can be illustrated by a simple analogy. And when thinking about this matter of the counterfeit and the true.
*But we need the trained eye and we need some kind of criteria to evaluate what is real and what is not real. It is important to know what you get, not to be fooled by the counterfeit. So many people in our world claim to know God, don't they? So many people claim religion. They claim to be the followers of God, if not the representatives of God. How do we know?
*Well this is of great concern not only to us but to God and that is why it is so oft repeated in Scripture. The Word of God lays out for us many many times this matter of objective evidence regarding God's regenerating work in the life of an individual. The Bible has not left us without a standard by which we can measure the true believer. And here, in fact, in verse 3 are three great qualitative characteristics of a true believer. They worship by the Spirit of God, they glory in Christ Jesus and they put no confidence in the flesh. What a marvelous set of objective criteria to designate a true believer. But then on the other hand, there are those dogs and those evil workers and those called the mutilation who really do attack the church with their false premise of salvation and their false criteria of salvation. And we must be warned against them. And so, before we can look at these distinctive qualities of a true Christian, we must come face to face with the fact that we need to be able to discern the false.
*This passage is very important for we must be continually laying the life of an individual alongside the objective standard in order that we may affirm their spiritual condition. There was a book written by Gardner Spring many centuries ago. He titled it, Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character. It's a very helpful book. It has been reprinted in recent years and in the reprinting the foreword says this, "It is our prayer that God may use this book in the following ways: one, to confirm the faith of such as are the true children of God but who lack assurance based upon biblical principles; two, to strip away the false hopes of such as are diluted and whose delusion has been confirmed by the erroneous teaching on the subject of assurance which is so prevalent in our day; three, to clarify these issues to those who stand in that awesome place of being expositors and teachers of God's holy Word so that they may find fuel for the fires of their own hearts and for their public ministry of the Scriptures," end quote.
*Wonderfully said. To understand biblical objective criteria for evaluating true salvation will help the true children of God be assured, secondly, it will help explode and strip away the delusion of the false children of God and thirdly, it will equip the teachers and preachers to do both. And thus this kind of passage is vital for us as it has been for all the church. It is vital.
*Now let's pick up where we left off last time. Paul says, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." We noted that that finally would better be translated "furthermore," or "so then," or "now then." It is a transition, not a note that distinguishes the end, as 44 remaining verses might indicate to you. And he throws in this which is the basic theme of the epistle that comes through in every chapter, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." He is simply punctuating here this theme of joy. He lays down this very simple principle that our rejoicing is connected to a relationship. Rejoice in the Lord. And as I said, that is a familiar theme. It's in chapter 1 verse 4, chapter 2 verse 2, chapter 2 verses 17 and 18, verses 28 and 29, you'll find it here in chapter 3 and again in chapter 4, you'll find it in verses 4 and 10. So he is reminding them about joy. But here he adds for the first time the little phrase "in the Lord...in the Lord." It is the sphere in which our joy exists. Only in Him is true joy found...nowhere else.
*Paul is not talking about happiness when he talks about joy and rejoicing. Happiness is from hap...hap is a circumstance, happenstance, happenings, happiness, all the same word group. That is to say happiness is an emotion or an exhilaration associated with certain events. It is not an emotion or an exhilaration associated with a relationship. It has to do with an event, a thing, a happening. So the kind of joy that Paul is talking about and calling for, and this by the way is a command, and the command implies the capability of obedience on the part of a believer which in itself is no doubt a test of true salvation. But he says...rejoice in the Lord...commanding us to joy. But it is not the kind of emotional outburst, good feeling, exhilaration that is associated with an event. It is the kind that is associated with a relationship. It doesn't even say, "Rejoice because of what the Lord has given you...rejoice because of what the Lord will give you...rejoice because of what the Lord is giving you." It doesn't say, "Rejoice because of what the Lord has done for the people that you care about." It says, "Rejoice in the Lord."
*It is the exhilaration in the relationship, perhaps the simplest human analogy to it would be the joy of a parent in a newborn baby. It is the same kind of emotion only in much greater and deeper proportion as that of falling in love. And extrapolating out of those irrepressible human joys that come out of relationship, we can magnify that concept in to what we ought to feel and ever rejoice in that we enjoy with the Lord Himself.
*This kind of joy is not an emotion from a human level, it is produced by the Holy Spirit therefore it is a supernatural emotion. It is a supernatural emotion. It is a supernatural emotion that also could be described as the absence of any ultimate fear because what is there to fear when all is bound up in the relationship and the relationship is eternal. It is the kind of emotion that puts a melody in the heart that no matter how bad it is in the world, it's almost as if we ride across the top of the bumps. It's the kind of emotion that produces easy thanks for little things...small pleasures.
*It's very different from happiness. It's different from the happiness, for example, of good health because true joy persists in weakness, pain, illness and death. It is the joy in the relationship and the relationship with Jesus Christ that we enjoy never changes...never changes. He is always present. He is ever close.
* And so I submit to you that before we look at the explicit qualities of a true Christian, one of the implicit ones is that there is a surpassing joy in the relationship that is unrelated to the circumstances of life.
*So, Paul says keep on rejoicing in the Lord, that's a command and a characteristic of a true believer. And having punctuated his major theme he then moves in to what's on his heart in this new subject. And he begins with an introduction in verse 1, he says, "To write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you." That's an interesting statement. He is assuming that they're going to be a bit surprised that he's going to bring up a subject he's already brought up. So he says to write the same things again doesn't really bother me because I understand that it's going to protect you.
*What does he mean to write the same things again? Well, he's either referring back to what he just said or forward to what he's about to say. It is my conviction that he's speaking now forward of what he's about to say for the simple reason that saying "rejoice in the Lord" doesn't seem to be a safeguard but what he does say in verse 2 is definitely a safeguard, "Beware...beware...beware." So the context would lead us to the conclusion that he is about to say something he's already at least made reference to but he doesn't mind saying it again because it's a protection. So he says to write the same things again...well, when had he written them before? Well maybe many times in the past epistles, but I think he probably has in mind chapter 1 verse 27 because he does say "to write the same things is no trouble to me and a safeguard for you" in a sort of generic way. It could mean that he's written this in other epistles. But I think we could safely say that he must also have in mind chapter 1 verse 27. Here he says in verse 27, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel," he's calling them to godly life and behavior as a church. Then in verse 28 he introduces this factor, "In no way alarmed by your opponents which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you." Now what he is saying to them is you can expect some opposition, you can expect some opponents, you can expect some conflict, you can expect some attacks, some persecutions. Verse 29 says why, "Because it's been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His sake and you will further experience the very same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me." And where was Paul when he wrote? Prisoner and he was having conflict as he always did from both the Jewish people who hated his message and the Gentiles who rejected him.
*So, Paul says to them...Look, stay true, walk worthy, stay together in one mind striving for the faith of the gospel, don't cave in to the opposition because Christ has called you to suffer for His sake and experience the same kind of conflict you see me going through...that's part of it. The implication then of that first chapter text is that they were already going to be under attack, maybe they had already begun to experience it. And he had warned them there about it and how to react to it. So now when you come to verse 1 of chapter 3 he says, "To write the same things again is no trouble to me," he may well have in mind an allusion to that first chapter section. "I want to warn you again only this time I'm going to be more specific." There he said don't be alarmed by your opponents, here he says here's how to recognize them.
*He says in that little phrase "to write the same things again is no trouble to me," he uses an interesting word, okneros(?), it means to cause fear or reluctance. He's saying I'm not reluctant and I'm not afraid to do this, it's no bother to me at all, I am excited to do this, I am anxious to do this. Why? Because it is a safeguard for you. I want to protect you. I want to protect the church from false religionists, from false teachers. And that's what he has in mind here when he uses the word safeguard, a very interesting word. The Greek verb means to trip, to cause to fall, to overthrow. You add to what the Greek language...in the Greek language we call the alpha privative, it negates it. So he is saying I want to provide this for you so you won't trip, you won't fall, you won't be overthrown. This will be your protection, your dependable safeguard.
*This is part of Paul's duty, isn't it? Paul is no dumb dog, as it mentions in Isaiah 56:10, he's no irresponsible watchman as we would see in Ezekiel. Paul is a faithful man to warn his people. In fact, in Acts 20 he says, "I have not ceased to warn you at Ephesus night and day with tears for the space of three years, I've warned you about perverse men rising up from within, I've warned you about grievous wolves from without," a warning ministry was a part of his life. He says I have no trouble in warning you again because it will protect you.
*Now who is he warning about? Who is he talking about? Well let's find out in verse 2. He uses the word blepoin the Greek, beware, three times. All three times in the imperative...beware..beware..beware. You could translate it "be on the constant lookout for...be on the constant lookout for dogs, evil workers," and here's the key..."the mutilation." Who is he talking about? Well if you take that mutilation at the end of verse 2 which is translated in the NAS the false circumcision, and then you compare it with verse 3, the true circumcision, we know who he's talking about.
I`ve put the second half of this tread on another tread so that it wouldn`t be so long.
Thanks for your time.
Amen
Troy
The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian Part 2
Philippians 3 1-3
*...Philippians chapter 3 verse 1, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation for we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh."
*The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian." They are found really in verse 3. He gives us these three qualities of a true Christian, "Who worship in the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh."
*What is a Christian? We could say he's a believer. What is a Christian? We could say he's a child of God. What is a Christian? We could say he's a disciple. We could say he's a follower. He is one who loves God. But how could we say it better than to say a Christian is one who worships in the Spirit of God, glories in Christ Jesus and puts no confidence in the flesh? What a surpassing definition of the true Christian.
*And the distinctive qualities of the true Christian are indeed found in that third verse. But before we get to the third verse, Paul has a contrast in mind in the first two verses after his brief introduction. And by virtue of that contrast we see in more bold relief the reality of the distinctive qualities of the true Christian. For the true Christian, as defined in verse 3, is compared to the false religionists of verse 2 who are called dogs, evil workers and are even called rather than the false circumcision, the actual word is the mutilation. This characterizes those who are not true Christians.
*Now as you well know this matter of comparing those with false association with God alongside with the true is a repeated theme in Scripture and thus a repeated theme in our study here through the years. It has always been the ploy of Satan to infiltrate the true church with the false, to sow the tares among the wheat. It has always been the ploy of Satan to allow perverse men to rise up within the congregation to lead it astray. It has always been the ploy of Satan to allow and energize grievous wolves to attack the flock and tear it to shreds with false doctrine. It has always been the call of God on the life of the minister to be nourished up in the words of the faith, that is the Scripture, and sound doctrine in order to refute the heretics, in order to warn the congregation of intrusion of error. So this matter of true and false simply draws the battle lines where they have been drawn through the ages as the people of God endeavor to stand against the people of Satan who usually are disguised as angels of light, wanting to infiltrate the church.
*So, what we see with the Apostle Paul here is really a warning, a warning for the purpose as he uses the term in verse 1 of safeguard, a warning about false religionists who will endeavor to confuse, who will endeavor to debilitate to destroy the work of the gospel. The counterfeit, always around, always on Satan's agenda, always a threat. Sometimes a profound spiritual truth can be illustrated by a simple analogy. And when thinking about this matter of the counterfeit and the true.
*But we need the trained eye and we need some kind of criteria to evaluate what is real and what is not real. It is important to know what you get, not to be fooled by the counterfeit. So many people in our world claim to know God, don't they? So many people claim religion. They claim to be the followers of God, if not the representatives of God. How do we know?
*Well this is of great concern not only to us but to God and that is why it is so oft repeated in Scripture. The Word of God lays out for us many many times this matter of objective evidence regarding God's regenerating work in the life of an individual. The Bible has not left us without a standard by which we can measure the true believer. And here, in fact, in verse 3 are three great qualitative characteristics of a true believer. They worship by the Spirit of God, they glory in Christ Jesus and they put no confidence in the flesh. What a marvelous set of objective criteria to designate a true believer. But then on the other hand, there are those dogs and those evil workers and those called the mutilation who really do attack the church with their false premise of salvation and their false criteria of salvation. And we must be warned against them. And so, before we can look at these distinctive qualities of a true Christian, we must come face to face with the fact that we need to be able to discern the false.
*This passage is very important for we must be continually laying the life of an individual alongside the objective standard in order that we may affirm their spiritual condition. There was a book written by Gardner Spring many centuries ago. He titled it, Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character. It's a very helpful book. It has been reprinted in recent years and in the reprinting the foreword says this, "It is our prayer that God may use this book in the following ways: one, to confirm the faith of such as are the true children of God but who lack assurance based upon biblical principles; two, to strip away the false hopes of such as are diluted and whose delusion has been confirmed by the erroneous teaching on the subject of assurance which is so prevalent in our day; three, to clarify these issues to those who stand in that awesome place of being expositors and teachers of God's holy Word so that they may find fuel for the fires of their own hearts and for their public ministry of the Scriptures," end quote.
*Wonderfully said. To understand biblical objective criteria for evaluating true salvation will help the true children of God be assured, secondly, it will help explode and strip away the delusion of the false children of God and thirdly, it will equip the teachers and preachers to do both. And thus this kind of passage is vital for us as it has been for all the church. It is vital.
*Now let's pick up where we left off last time. Paul says, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." We noted that that finally would better be translated "furthermore," or "so then," or "now then." It is a transition, not a note that distinguishes the end, as 44 remaining verses might indicate to you. And he throws in this which is the basic theme of the epistle that comes through in every chapter, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." He is simply punctuating here this theme of joy. He lays down this very simple principle that our rejoicing is connected to a relationship. Rejoice in the Lord. And as I said, that is a familiar theme. It's in chapter 1 verse 4, chapter 2 verse 2, chapter 2 verses 17 and 18, verses 28 and 29, you'll find it here in chapter 3 and again in chapter 4, you'll find it in verses 4 and 10. So he is reminding them about joy. But here he adds for the first time the little phrase "in the Lord...in the Lord." It is the sphere in which our joy exists. Only in Him is true joy found...nowhere else.
*Paul is not talking about happiness when he talks about joy and rejoicing. Happiness is from hap...hap is a circumstance, happenstance, happenings, happiness, all the same word group. That is to say happiness is an emotion or an exhilaration associated with certain events. It is not an emotion or an exhilaration associated with a relationship. It has to do with an event, a thing, a happening. So the kind of joy that Paul is talking about and calling for, and this by the way is a command, and the command implies the capability of obedience on the part of a believer which in itself is no doubt a test of true salvation. But he says...rejoice in the Lord...commanding us to joy. But it is not the kind of emotional outburst, good feeling, exhilaration that is associated with an event. It is the kind that is associated with a relationship. It doesn't even say, "Rejoice because of what the Lord has given you...rejoice because of what the Lord will give you...rejoice because of what the Lord is giving you." It doesn't say, "Rejoice because of what the Lord has done for the people that you care about." It says, "Rejoice in the Lord."
*It is the exhilaration in the relationship, perhaps the simplest human analogy to it would be the joy of a parent in a newborn baby. It is the same kind of emotion only in much greater and deeper proportion as that of falling in love. And extrapolating out of those irrepressible human joys that come out of relationship, we can magnify that concept in to what we ought to feel and ever rejoice in that we enjoy with the Lord Himself.
*This kind of joy is not an emotion from a human level, it is produced by the Holy Spirit therefore it is a supernatural emotion. It is a supernatural emotion. It is a supernatural emotion that also could be described as the absence of any ultimate fear because what is there to fear when all is bound up in the relationship and the relationship is eternal. It is the kind of emotion that puts a melody in the heart that no matter how bad it is in the world, it's almost as if we ride across the top of the bumps. It's the kind of emotion that produces easy thanks for little things...small pleasures.
*It's very different from happiness. It's different from the happiness, for example, of good health because true joy persists in weakness, pain, illness and death. It is the joy in the relationship and the relationship with Jesus Christ that we enjoy never changes...never changes. He is always present. He is ever close.
* And so I submit to you that before we look at the explicit qualities of a true Christian, one of the implicit ones is that there is a surpassing joy in the relationship that is unrelated to the circumstances of life.
*So, Paul says keep on rejoicing in the Lord, that's a command and a characteristic of a true believer. And having punctuated his major theme he then moves in to what's on his heart in this new subject. And he begins with an introduction in verse 1, he says, "To write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you." That's an interesting statement. He is assuming that they're going to be a bit surprised that he's going to bring up a subject he's already brought up. So he says to write the same things again doesn't really bother me because I understand that it's going to protect you.
*What does he mean to write the same things again? Well, he's either referring back to what he just said or forward to what he's about to say. It is my conviction that he's speaking now forward of what he's about to say for the simple reason that saying "rejoice in the Lord" doesn't seem to be a safeguard but what he does say in verse 2 is definitely a safeguard, "Beware...beware...beware." So the context would lead us to the conclusion that he is about to say something he's already at least made reference to but he doesn't mind saying it again because it's a protection. So he says to write the same things again...well, when had he written them before? Well maybe many times in the past epistles, but I think he probably has in mind chapter 1 verse 27 because he does say "to write the same things is no trouble to me and a safeguard for you" in a sort of generic way. It could mean that he's written this in other epistles. But I think we could safely say that he must also have in mind chapter 1 verse 27. Here he says in verse 27, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel," he's calling them to godly life and behavior as a church. Then in verse 28 he introduces this factor, "In no way alarmed by your opponents which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you." Now what he is saying to them is you can expect some opposition, you can expect some opponents, you can expect some conflict, you can expect some attacks, some persecutions. Verse 29 says why, "Because it's been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His sake and you will further experience the very same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me." And where was Paul when he wrote? Prisoner and he was having conflict as he always did from both the Jewish people who hated his message and the Gentiles who rejected him.
*So, Paul says to them...Look, stay true, walk worthy, stay together in one mind striving for the faith of the gospel, don't cave in to the opposition because Christ has called you to suffer for His sake and experience the same kind of conflict you see me going through...that's part of it. The implication then of that first chapter text is that they were already going to be under attack, maybe they had already begun to experience it. And he had warned them there about it and how to react to it. So now when you come to verse 1 of chapter 3 he says, "To write the same things again is no trouble to me," he may well have in mind an allusion to that first chapter section. "I want to warn you again only this time I'm going to be more specific." There he said don't be alarmed by your opponents, here he says here's how to recognize them.
*He says in that little phrase "to write the same things again is no trouble to me," he uses an interesting word, okneros(?), it means to cause fear or reluctance. He's saying I'm not reluctant and I'm not afraid to do this, it's no bother to me at all, I am excited to do this, I am anxious to do this. Why? Because it is a safeguard for you. I want to protect you. I want to protect the church from false religionists, from false teachers. And that's what he has in mind here when he uses the word safeguard, a very interesting word. The Greek verb means to trip, to cause to fall, to overthrow. You add to what the Greek language...in the Greek language we call the alpha privative, it negates it. So he is saying I want to provide this for you so you won't trip, you won't fall, you won't be overthrown. This will be your protection, your dependable safeguard.
*This is part of Paul's duty, isn't it? Paul is no dumb dog, as it mentions in Isaiah 56:10, he's no irresponsible watchman as we would see in Ezekiel. Paul is a faithful man to warn his people. In fact, in Acts 20 he says, "I have not ceased to warn you at Ephesus night and day with tears for the space of three years, I've warned you about perverse men rising up from within, I've warned you about grievous wolves from without," a warning ministry was a part of his life. He says I have no trouble in warning you again because it will protect you.
*Now who is he warning about? Who is he talking about? Well let's find out in verse 2. He uses the word blepoin the Greek, beware, three times. All three times in the imperative...beware..beware..beware. You could translate it "be on the constant lookout for...be on the constant lookout for dogs, evil workers," and here's the key..."the mutilation." Who is he talking about? Well if you take that mutilation at the end of verse 2 which is translated in the NAS the false circumcision, and then you compare it with verse 3, the true circumcision, we know who he's talking about.
I`ve put the second half of this tread on another tread so that it wouldn`t be so long.
Thanks for your time.
Amen
Troy
