Today we are continuing on in our series on the book of Philippians that I have titled “Joy no matter what!” We have been studying the high points of each chapter in the book of Philippians. Today, we will be looking at chapter three. Before we jump into chapter 3, let’s quickly review what we have learned in the first couple of weeks in the book of Philippians. If you remember, we learned that the main theme of chapter 1 is that we can have joy even in suffering and hard times. If you remember the context, the apostle Paul had always dreamed of going to Rome as a preacher, but instead ended up there as a prisoner facing potential execution. And in verse 12 of chapter 1, Paul said, "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." We can have joy in suffering and hard times. In chapter 2, we learned how we have joy in our relationships. We learned that we have to have the right attitude in order to have joy in our relationships. Whose attitude are we to have? Christ’s attitude. We learned that we need to demonstrate Christ’s attitude of humility and Christ’s attitude of servanthood.The main theme for chapter 3 is: how to keep our joy in our relationship with God. When we put our faith in God’s son, Jesus Christ, there is joy in being right with God through faith in Christ. What’s interesting to me though is that a lot of times, you’ll see people who call themselves followers of Christ and they seem to be miserable rather than joyful. Sometimes you may walk into a church and rather than seeing people smiling and with this sense of joy they look like they’ve been sucking on lemons. Anybody know what I’m talking about? It’s kind of this miserable look. And what’s really interesting is sometimes you’ll see a brand new believer who is on fire with passion and God’s answering their prayers and everything is going great. Then some “mature” Christian comes up and says, "Oh don’t worry, it’ll wear off. Soon you’ll be miserable just like me." I don’t get that! As followers of Jesus Christ, we should be the most joyful people around! In Philippians 3, Paul shows us how to safeguard our joy.
In verse 1 Paul says: "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.” Then in verses 2 to 14, Paul gives us three safeguards to help us keep our joy. The first safeguard to keeping our joy is: We must resist legalism with everything in us. What is legalism? Here’s a definition: Legalism is substituting rules for relationship. It’s substituting rules and thinking that we’re going to be made right with God by obeying the rules rather than being made right with God by having a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Believing the lies of legalism will steal our joy and Paul does not mince words when it comes to this subject. Let’s look at his harsh words in verse 2 where he says: “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.”
Now, what was Paul saying? Well, what he was saying was very meaningful both to the Philippians and to a group that were known as the Judiaizers. Now, who were the Judiaizers? Every time Paul would go in and plant a church and after it would be up and running and successful a group of false teachers called the Judiaizers would show up on the scene after Paul had left. What they would basically do is they would try to undo Paul’s teaching. They’d say, "What he said is pretty good but it’s not the complete message. You see, to really be right with God, first of all Gentiles, you should really have been born Jewish (which they couldn’t do anything about that) and secondly, you’re going to need to be circumcised." During this time the Jewish people did not think very highly of the Gentiles. They would call the Gentiles “dogs”. Dogs were considered the lowest animal at that time.
So Paul says back to the Judiaizers: “You’re a bunch of dogs!” So surely, the Philippians would have been laughing and the Judiaizers would have been highly offended to be called that which they called others. Then he went on to say: “They can circumcise themselves all they want, but they’re only mutilating their flesh.” In other words, they can slice and dice and cut and trim back, but that doesn’t make them right with God. What makes them right with God is not outward legalistic rules, but an inward relationship with Christ. Paul tells the Philippians and us to resist legalism, watch out for those dogs who will teach these false teachings.
Paul continues in verses 3 and 4 and he starts off by saying: “For it is we who are the circumcision.” Now remember the Judiaizers said that they had to be circumcised in their but Paul was saying here (and he said it in other places too) that being circumcised of the flesh doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are circumcised of the heart. Circumcision of the heart means that God cuts away the old nature of the heart and God gives us a new heart. Paul is saying: that’s the real circumcision. He continues on in verse 3 and says it’s “We who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.” What is Paul saying here? He is saying: “We put no confidence in our outward attempts to please God. We don’t put confidence in that.” Then in verse 4 he says: “though I myself have reasons for such confidence.”
Then the next thing that Paul does is quite interesting. He says: “Okay, do you guys want to play the outward game? Do you want to see who is more outwardly religious? I got you all beat!” In the second half of verse 4 through to verse 6, Paul gives us his resume for religious success. This is what he said: “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Basically he is saying: “You think you’re righteous, look at my outward behaviour and it far exceeds anything that any of you could want.” Then he’s going to go on to say: “You know what? All of that stuff doesn’t matter at all.” Resist the temptation to be legalistic. Why do so many of us slip into it? Because it kind of feels good. It feels like we get to contribute something but we can’t contribute anything to our righteous standing with God.
Three ways that legalism manifests itself. The first way would be rituals. Rituals are never bad in and of themselves. In fact, they can be very meaningful. They can help us to connect with God in an awesome way. But the minute we say: “I’m right with God because I was baptized” we’re trusting in a ritual rather than trusting in Christ. The minute we say: “I’m right with God because I received communion” we’re trusting in a ritual rather than trusting in Christ. The minute that we say: “I’m right with God because I’m a member of a church” we’re trusting in a ritual rather than trusting in Christ. Paul says: “Don’t do that! At all costs, make sure you don’t put your trust in rituals.”
A second way legalism manifests itself is: religion. A lot of people try to substitute Christianity for what I call “churchianity”. They think: “I go to Sunday school so I’m right with God” or “I’m a deacon in the church so that makes me important.” Religion is always man’s outward attempt to reach God. Christianity though is God’s outward attempt through Jesus Christ to reach man and there’s a big difference. The root word for religion literally means bondage and there is no joy in religion. There is joy in a relationship with Christ but not in religion.
A third way legalism manifests itself is through rules. Legalism makes people try to follow the rules. In fact, Paul was a Pharisee and he knew very well that the Pharisees crossed every “T” and dotted every “I” and they were sticklers to following all 619 of the pharisaical rules. Here are some examples of real rules. The Pharisees paid special attention to the Sabbath and many of their rules revolved around the Sabbath and keeping the Sabbath day holy. One rule was if a hen laid an egg on the Sabbath, you could not eat that egg. That was a rule. Why? Because the hen had to work on the Sabbath. Another rule was that if you get bitten by a mosquito on the Sabbath you can’t scratch the itch. That was a rule. If you have a cat and the cat’s litter box is dirty, you can’t change it on the Sabbath. That’s not really one of them but it could have been. It’s that crazy! Anytime you slip into legalism, you lose your joy. I dare you to find one legalistic joyful person. You can’t do it. Resist it. Some of you have slipped into that. Resist it. Resist it with everything in you. Watch out for the dogs, those mutilators of the flesh. In order to safeguard your joy, the first thing we do is resist legalism.
A second safeguard in order to keep our joy is: we have to consistently refocus our ambitions. We need to refocus our life on that which is most important. Why do we have to do this consistently? Because quite frankly, most of us are easily distracted. Now remember what Paul just said. He said: “Here are all my outward reasons why I look religiously successful.” And then he says this in verse 7 and 8 “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” It’s junk. It's garbage. All of those external efforts, they are literally rubbish in God’s eyes.
Now these verses are so key to understanding the joy that God wants us to have. Paul says: “I consider everything I used to think was religiously important a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.” The word translated “knowing” here comes from a Greek work that means “the absolute most intimate way of knowing”. It means “to know intimately.” This word was used of a husband knowing his wife. It’s the most intimate form of knowing and here’s where a lot of people miss it. Many people know a lot about Christ (textbook knowledge - they know the answers) but they don’t know Him personally – in an intimate way. Paul says: “Everything else, it doesn’t matter compared to the surpassing greatness of intimately knowing Christ. That’s what really matters.” Paul says that’s what is most important that we have to consistently refocus our life to that place because it’s so easy to be distracted by the things of the world.
He said: “All this other stuff, all the external stuff, I consider it as rubbish." The word that is translated “rubbish” here is a very interesting word. It comes from the Greek word “skubala”. “Skubala” can be translated one of two ways. First, it simply means that which is thrown to the dogs, refuse, garbage, all this kind of stuff. The other distinctively different way it can be translated is “dung”. Now, not just regular dung, but “skubala” was a slang word for dung. If your kid said “skubala” in the English version, you would wash your kid's mouth out with soap. If your kid said “skubala” they would be grounded. Paul is saying that “all this outward stuff it is as just ‘skubala’. Dung with a capital D. It doesn’t matter at all.”
Paul goes on to say in verse 9 "and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." My right standing with God is not something that externally I can achieve; it only comes by believing. It only comes by faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God is by faith – and faith alone. Paul goes on to say in verse 10 and 11 something amazing. He says, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Paul is saying that “If I have to suffer like Him to become like Him, bring it on. I want to share in the fellowship of His sufferings, become like Him in death and so somehow to attain the resurrection of the dead. Guard your joy. The first way we do this is by resisting the temptation to become legalistic. The second way we do this is we consistently refocus our ambitions on that which is most important.
The third safeguard for keeping our joy is: we must reject complacency. We must never become comfortable or complacent. Look what Paul says. He says in the first half of verse12: "not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect." Now, besides Jesus, Paul was the most perfect guy that I know and he says: Guess what! I haven’t arrived, I haven’t achieved it!” Then he says in the last half of verse 12 he says: “but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Then he says again in the first half of verse 13, "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.” Paul is saying: “I haven’t arrived; I’m not complacent in where I am. I'm rejecting the temptation to think that I have already arrived.” And that’s what we must do as well. Complacency is one of our spiritual enemy’s greatest tools that make us vulnerable to his attacks. The moment that we become complacent in our marriage is the moment that our marriage becomes vulnerable from an attack from the evil one. The moment that we become complacent in our relationship with God is the moment that we can start to drift away from Him. The moment that we become complacent in our ministry is the moment that Satan can try and stop the great work of God. Resist complacency with everything in you.
And then Paul goes on to say this in the last half of verse 13 and in verse 14: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” If we’re going to become everything that God wants us to become, we must develop a bad memory. And there are two things that we need to forget. The first thing is: forget our failures. Forget them. Forget them. Leave them behind and never look at them again. There are some who are right here this moment and you are bound up in the sin of yesterday or last week or last month or last year. If you’ve confessed it before God, God has forgiven it, let it go! Let it go! Stop living in a prison of yesterday’s sin. Forget it! Move on. You say: “You don’t know how bad it was.” I say: look at what Paul did. Paul killed innocent Christians before he was a follower of Christ. Do you think you’ve done something bad? Let it go. Let it go. Be free. You are forgiven. Forgive yourself.
The second thing we must forget is our successes. We need to forget our successes. Whatever we think is successful, we need to write it down, cross it out and put “skubala” right by it. All our outward attempts to please God are “skubala”. All this other stuff that we get focused on and steals our joy, all this is nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ in the most intimate way. That’s where true joy is found. It's in knowing Christ. I consider all else a loss compared with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. In order for us to keep our joy in the Lord we must reject complacency!
If we do not safeguard our joy in our relationship with God we are in danger of losing it. There are so many things that vie for our attention and we need to safeguard our joy that comes from our relationship with God. We looked at a few ways that we can do that this morning. In order to safeguard our joy we must resist legalism, refocus our ambitions and reject complacency. In closing, I want to give you some questions to reflect upon. Come before God with these questions. First, are you becoming legalistic? If so, in what areas? Second, are you closer to Christ today than you were yesterday? Third, have you become complacent? If so, in what areas? Three simple questions but the answers to these questions are not so simple. Do not allow ANYTHING to steal your joy that comes from knowing Christ and do EVERYTHING to keep it!
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