In his sermon titled 'Have No Confidence in the Flesh,' Jason Dohm explores Philippians 3:1-11, emphasizing the need to place complete trust in Jesus Christ rather than in human accomplishments or credentials. Dohm argues that true believers are those who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ, and have no confidence in their own flesh. He reflects on the sovereignty of God and relates a personal correction from a previous sermon, showing how understanding God's control over life and death can be a source of comfort. Dohm warns against placing hope in self-righteousness or adhering to the law, using Paul's own background as an example of a resume that must be counted as loss for the sake of Christ. He encourages revisiting fundamental Christian truths to reinforce faith and cautions against relying on heritage, external marks, or sound doctrine alone for salvation. Salvation, he insists, is by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, leading believers to turn away from relying on any other source of confidence.

Our sermon text is Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 and I'll be reading on through verse 11. Please follow along. Finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation.

For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Please be seated. I want to begin by finishing last week's sermon. Correction and a clarification from last week. First, I quoted Jim Elliott last week and said he had martyred in my lifetime, not quite.

He was actually martyred on January 8, 1956. So, I added a few years on to my own life, I guess. Secondly, I was speaking about the sovereignty of God, and I referenced the Smith's friend in California who died last week and said, God killed that man. I quoted the song of Moses where God says, I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. The point I was making is, if you want the God of the Bible, you have to reconcile yourself to that fact.

And it's not an easy task, But I felt like I sort of left it short of where I should have left it in saying, you know, God killed that man, deal with it. That is true, but it's not nearly complete enough. Here's what I mean by that. In killing that man, God brought one of his sons to be with him face to face. So it's not a loss to that man at all.

He's enjoying his reward now. So we have no reason to feel bad for him. But he's left behind many. He's left behind ten children and a grieving wife. I felt like my comments were very cold towards those who were left.

I just want to say this is not a cold doctrine. That God is sovereign in the killing of people is not a cold doctrine. It's actually a doctrine of comfort and hope if we understand it rightly. When God took this woman's husband, when God took these children's father, He did it knowing exactly how he would provide for them. He did it knowing that he would never leave them or forsake them.

He did it knowing that in some ways they would experience his faithfulness and his kindness and his goodness in ways that they never would have had he taken a different course with their family. So I just wanted to circle back and say, this is a warm doctrine. I preached it as a cold doctrine last week, and then afterwards I was sorry that I had, because it should be a doctrine that warms our hearts that God knows before he brings grief into our lives Exactly how he's going to come behind the grief To sustain us and to actually give us joys that we may never have experienced in Him and being satisfied in Him and being sustained by Him that we may never have experienced otherwise. And we'll look back on all these griefs that God brings into our life and say, God, you are good, you are wise in everything that you do. So here endeth last week's sermon, and here beginneth this week's sermon.

And here starteth the time clock. The title of this week's sermon is, Have No Confidence in the Flesh. It's lifted right out of the text. It's where Paul says that those who are really in Christ have no confidence in the flesh. But I am using it in the title really as more of a command or an exhortation that we walk away from any confidence in anything other than Christ.

That is what this text is about. Turn your back on anything aside from the person and work of Jesus Christ. That is our calling in this text. Just turn our back on those things and walk away from them and walk to Christ. Run to Christ and put all of our confidence in Him.

We're coming out of a two week character study. The first week was on Timothy, the second week was on Epaphroditus, and the key point that I tried to end with last week was this, there is a God in heaven who is all worthy of living for and dying for. In other words, when God in His Word puts forward exemplary characters, people who were faithful and looked to Him and who had things in their life that are praiseworthy, we should look beyond those things and say, well yes, there is a wonderful person being profiled here in Scripture, but the real truth here is that there is a God in heaven of living your life for, and even laying down your life for. There is a God who puts His hands on sinners and claims them for His own, and transforms them. And so Paul is able to put forward men who have been transformed.

See past the men who have been transformed to the God who transforms them. That's what these texts are fundamentally about. This week we shift to what we hope in, what we trust in. And Paul is going to make, this week and next, an all out assault on hoping or trusting in self. So that's what this week is about, that's what next week is about.

Paul is waging war against you trusting in anything you can do, or anything that I can do. He is going to show them as insufficient, as hopes that will disappoint, as hopes that we should turn our backs on and walk away from as we run to Christ. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Our God, we pray to you that you would, by your Spirit, come and work in our hearts so that we rejoice only in Christ, hope only in Christ. Boast only in Christ.

Although the thinking well of ourselves that we've been guilty of would be in a much larger extent a thing of the past in our lives. Come and make it a thing of the past for us, God. We would rejoice and boast and trust in Christ and turn our back and run away from anything that we thought was praiseworthy in ourselves. Oh, let us see it rightly, O God, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, we're in Philippians 3, verses 1-6 this week, but I'd like to begin just by looking at verse 1 by itself. So hopefully your finger is there. Follow along as I read verse 1. Paul writes, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe." Here in verse 1 we have rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if you are filling in blanks on the handout, it is rejoicing. Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse begins with the word, finally, which is simply a normal literary transition in the Greek. So it's a little different in the Greek than it would be in the English. We're reading this as an English written letter.

We would be saying he's coming right up on the end. He said finally, but we're really about halfway through the letter. It's really a normal Greek transition that just signals to the person who's reading we're changing subjects. It really is a fairly dramatic change in subject. And Paul is addressing his brethren.

Finally, my brethren. He's reminding us that the people he's talking to, These exhortations are directed to those who share the same Father with Him, who have been adopted into the family of God through faith in His Son. He gives them this imperative. An imperative is kind of a softer way to say command. He's giving us something that we ought to do.

And here it is. Rejoice in the Lord. Find joy in the Lord. Express joy in the Lord. Experience joy in the Lord.

So there are two things here. One is this is a particular kind of rejoicing. This is not simply cheer up. I know things are bad in Philippi. We're all experiencing persecution of one kind or another, so cheer up.

It goes way beyond this. This is a distinctive kind of rejoicing. It's Christian rejoicing that is rooted in something very specific. First, this is a particular kind of rejoicing. It's Christian rejoicing.

Secondly, The Lord, and this is a word that is almost exclusively used for Jesus. So we're talking about Jesus here. The Lord, Jesus, is the source of and the reason for the rejoicing. That's what it means to rejoice in the Lord. It means that Jesus is the source of it.

Meaning, it bubbles up out of a life that has been imparted by His work. So you're incapable of rejoicing in the Lord if you are not alive in Christ. It bubbles up out of being alive in Christ. He is the source of it and He is the reason for it. Meaning those who have life in Christ and look upon Him then, having been made alive through His work, it makes them happy.

That's the point. When you've been given life by Christ and then you gaze upon Him in all of His perfection, and you consider His work, it makes you happy. This is what it means to rejoice in the Lord. It means to consider Jesus having been given life by Jesus. If you are not made happy by a consideration of Jesus, this is a warning sign.

This should concern you, worry you. So this is the imperative. This is what we ought to do. We should rejoice in the Lord. Now, friends, think of how freeing This whole concept of rejoicing in the Lord.

In what way? In this way. It's totally unhooked from your circumstances. Rejoicing in the Lord is totally unhooked from your immediate circumstances. Meaning that the Apostle Paul, chained between two Romans with his life hanging in the balance, can nonetheless be filled with rejoicing in the Lord, because he's been given life by Jesus, and so his immediate circumstances don't matter that much.

Because he knows his ultimate circumstances are completely secure because of Jesus. It keeps your joy from being a roller coaster ride. Higher than high today and lower than low tomorrow because it's not dependent on what time I woke up, how much sleep I got, have I eaten on time, are people being nice to me, is work going well, and on and on and on and on. It totally disconnects your joy from that, and it becomes rooted in and flowing out of Jesus Christ. It's rejoicing in the Lord.

This is so freeing. May we know this more and more and more so that we are not so temperamental. Having our joy wrapped up in what has happened in the last ten minutes of life. Who wants to live like that? It's not me.

Your family don't want you to live like that either. The people close to you don't want you to live like that either. They want your joy rooted in Christ so that it's steady joy. Now, rejoicing the Lord. Don't think of that as a stand-alone.

Like, okay, I got that out of my system, now we're going to move on to the other topic. No, no, no. As we get into Paul's all-out assault on confidence in the flesh, you have to know that these things are absolutely connected. This is not, rejoice in the Lord, now I've said it, it's off my chest, now we can talk about confidence in the flesh. These things are very, very connected.

Paul is establishing polar opposites. So the two ends, the two far ends of the spectrum, he establishes these polar opposites. And then they're set in contrast. So this is rejoicing in the Lord versus having confidence in the flesh. This is what Paul is doing.

This is fundamentally about what we value. What we find our joy in. What we place our confidence in. And these things are mutually exclusive. The polar opposites, the two ends of the line, the two ends of the continuum, are mutually exclusive.

If you want this, you must forsake this. If you want this, you must forsake this. If you rejoice in the Lord, you can't be having confidence in the flesh. If you have confidence in the flesh, it's going to ruin your hopes of rejoicing in the Lord. It's an either or.

Either you rejoice in the Lord or you place confidence in the flesh. Either you place confidence in the flesh or you rejoice in the Lord. They are being set up as mutually exclusive opposites. Now, here is the second part of verse 1. Paul communicates that he is headed down a well worn path.

I have already said this a bunch of times already. Look at the second part of verse 1. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe." He's saying, here we go, we're headed down the same old path again, we're headed down this well-worn path. And he's going to reiterate this point in verse 18, look at chapter 3 verse 18, For many walk of whom I have told you often. So he's going to say it again later in the chapter.

We're headed down another well-worn path. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ." This is how Paul teaches. This is his pattern of teaching. Not to teach something new and then move, and teach something new and then move, but he is always going back and reinforcing, making you remember the well-worn paths of fundamental things. Often the most needful things are the most basic and fundamental things.

True? Often the most needful things isn't something new that you never thought of before, even though you've been a Christian for 10 years or 20 years or 30 years. Often that's the thing you need the least. The thing you need the most is the thing you heard on the day you were saved. The most basic fundamental things are often the things we need the most.

Listen to 2 Peter 1 verses 12 and 13. The beginning part of 2 Peter 1, or the whole book of 2 Peter, is Peter exhorting Christians to give careful attention to nurturing the basic Christian virtues in their life. And then he says this, 2 Peter 1 verses 12 and 13, For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things." So he just talked about how you and I as Christians, if we are Christians, should nurture the basic Christian virtues. In other words, nothing fancy but things like love and faith. We should be nurturing those basic Christian virtues in our life.

And then he says, for this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. In other words, I'm reminding you now and don't expect this to be the last time. Though you know and are established in these present truths, in other words, I know you know these things, I know I'm not rolling out anything new, I know you're even established in these things, I'll remind you anyway, I'm going to remind you until I'm dead. Listen to verse 13. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you.

You heard these truths a long time ago, and you were established in them, and I'm telling you them, and I'm going to keep telling you them as long as I'm alive because it stirs you up. To hear the old truths, to head down the well-worn path one more time, stirs us up. It is a help to us. It's good. Paul was saying that same thing.

For you, it's safe. It's not tedious for me. For you, it's safe. We learn two things from Paul in Philippians 3 and from Peter in 2 Peter 1. The first thing is that we shouldn't be overly enamored with new things.

If you've been a Christian any time at all, don't be too in love with hearing something new. Don't be too in love with hearing something new. It was the pagans in Athens who loved to hear nothing but something that was new. They would gather to hear any new thing. Secondly, we learn that when we're given the privilege to be the one giving the instruction, we shouldn't grow tired of going down the well-worn paths.

When it's your turn to teach. Don't feel like, I can't go down that path again. We've been down that path too many times. Be careful of thinking it all needs to be new. They're getting bored with this.

So this has an impact on me as a student. As a student, when I'm hearing, I can't afford to just tune out and say, I heard that before. Like, is he talking about that again? This is his hobby horse. Will he ever get off his hobby horse?

Maybe it will be safe for you to hear it again. Maybe it will stir you up to hear it again. So we have to train our ears, not to tune out when we're hearing it again. And as a teacher, we should understand that Jesus's practice, Paul's practice, Peter's practice is to go down the well-worn path again, because it's good, it's wise, it may be the most needful thing. It's not the new thing that you thought you might teach, but to go back to the old thing that seems a little wobbly right now, And to stir them up through a repetition.

That's what Paul did, that's what Peter did. Now, back to Philippians chapter 3. I'd like to now look at verses 2 and 3 together. So follow along as I read Philippians 3, 2 and 3. Paul writes, Beware of dogs, Beware of evil workers, Beware of the mutilation, For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Here in verses 2 and 3, this is about having no confidence in the flesh. This is Paul's all out assault on trusting in anything you can do in your own strength. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's confidence flesh, having no confidence in the flesh. Paul begins these two verses with three bewares. Be on the lookout for and guard against dogs.

Beware dogs. Beware evil workers. Beware the mutilation. He is really coming at the same thing from three different angles. Because of all that Paul says in this section about circumcision, I am assuming that he is inoculating the Philippian Church against a certain false teaching.

I think that's what he's doing here. He is inoculating the Philippian Church against a particular dangerous, prevalent false teaching. What does it mean? He is inoculating a church. Vaccinating is an inoculation.

You go and get your shots, not just to hurt you, but to help you. It's something that makes your body, where you inject something that will make your body ready to fight a dangerous disease. You make yourself ready for war against mumps, or name a deadly disease that we have a vaccination for. In advance, you make your body ready to fight off the bad thing. I think this is what Paul is doing here with a particular teaching.

I think it's summed up with what we see in Acts 15 verse 1. Listen to Acts 15 verse 1. And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved." People were going out from the Jerusalem church, John later in one of the John Epistles says, they were not of us. They went out from us, but they were not of us. This is not apostolic teaching.

So they went out from the church in Jerusalem, and they were teaching brethren in foreign cities. They were teaching Gentiles, unless you are circumcised, according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. No circumcision, no salvation. That was just before Paul's first missionary journey. So now we're maybe 12 years later, but the teaching is still around.

There are still people who are traveling around and telling Gentiles, unless you're circumcised, you cannot be saved. I believe Paul is inoculating, vaccinating the Philippian Church against this false teaching. So assuming that is the case, and I think the context here totally supports that, Paul turns everything upside down to make a point. So you have to see what Paul is doing here and how confrontational it would be to anyone who would teach that doctrine. So he flips everything on its head.

I'll explain what I mean by that. What did devout Jews call Gentiles who were outside the covenant? Dogs. So if you're a devout Jew, you're in the covenant, you are in covenant with God, and so you know how to worship Him, you know where to go to worship Him, and how He wants to be worshiped, you would look at Gentiles, people from Philippi, and you would say those dogs are outside the covenant. That's always how it's used from cover to cover in the Bible.

Those outside, out there, those are the dogs or those are the swine. But Both of those terms are used. It's actually used by Jesus of those who are outside of covenant with God in Matthew chapter 7 and Matthew chapter 15. Jesus uses it that way. This is well established.

Devout Jews speak of those outside of covenant with God in this way. They are dogs. Paul says, no, you're the dogs. About these Jews who are so married to circumcision that they cannot think that you can even be saved unless you are circumcised. They are compelling Gentiles to be circumcised.

Who would have considered all the Philippians to be dogs? Paul says, no, you're the dogs. You're the ones outside of covenant with God. Now imagine, no wonder the Jews wanted to kill Paul and they chase him all over the known world in the book of Acts. No wonder they did.

Because they are viewing these Gentiles that Paul is preaching to and converting as dogs. And Paul looks them back in the eye and says, no, you're the dogs, you're the ones outside of covenant with God. In Revelation 22, this is the last chapter in the Bible, and it's the description of heaven, and so on the heels of the description of heaven in Revelation 22 verse 15 it says, but outside are dogs. Outside of heaven, outside of the New Jerusalem are dogs and sorcerers and murderers and adulterers. What do these men view themselves to be?

They are good Jews, they are devout Jews, they are coming out of Jerusalem, the place where the worship of God has been established. They view themselves as workers of righteousness. Workers of righteousness, like we're finally bringing a standard of righteousness to you Gentiles. What does Paul look them in the eye and say? Evil workers.

Evil workers. You're not just confused. You're compelling Gentiles to be circumcised in order to be saved, to telling them that is evil. You're doing evil work. All your travels are evil work.

All of your preaching is evil work. To raise up this mosaic requirement, this requirement given by Moses, and compel the Gentiles to it is evil. What do these men view to be the crowning mark of being in covenant with God? So here they come and they have their thing. What is their thing?

What is the crowning mark of being in covenant with God? Circumcision. It is the mark. It is the mark of being in the Lord's people. John MacArthur says this in a note in his study Bible, and he's explaining to us, English speakers, the play on words that we miss.

It's called the mutilation here. But There are two Greek words that if we knew we would get the play on words. The one is circumcision. The Greek word for that means to cut around. We're actually talking about physical things.

Circumcision is a physical cutting. But cutting around is the literal meaning of the Greek word for circumcision. The Greek word that Paul uses is cutting off, or mutilating. So circumcision as given by God was a cutting around and it was to mark you that you were in the covenant. Paul says if you compel Gentiles to this what was intended by God to be one thing has become something completely different.

It's become a mutilation of the flesh. It's become an unlawful cutting of the flesh that God actually legislates against in the Old Testament. There are Old Testament prohibitions against the pagan cuttings of the flesh and Paul says these men you have turned circumcision into an unlawful pagan cutting of the flesh mutilation. You said the Gentiles are dogs? You're the dogs.

You're the ones outside the covenant. You think you're a worker of righteousness? You're an evil worker in your preaching, in your traveling. You think circumcision is the crowning mark that they must have to be saved? What God has made to be a mark for the people of God, you have turned into a pagan mutilation that God forbids.

Turn to Galatians chapter 5. Paul actually expands on this himself in Galatians chapter 5. One thing that I relearned this week as I was studying is how much Paul writes about circumcision. We could have just as easily gone to Romans chapter 2, in fact I wish I had time to go to Romans chapter 2 too because it says a lot about circumcision there, or Colossians chapter 2. So there are three extended portions of text, Romans 2, Galatians 5, and Colossians 2, that deal at length with circumcision, and then there are many other places where he touches on circumcision.

This morning we will content ourselves with Galatians 5 verses 1 through 6. I'm going to sprinkle in comments as we go. So just hopefully you're with me in Galatians chapter 5. Just have your finger there and you'll have to put up with the sprinkled comments. Paul writes, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." So Paul completely raises the stakes on this to say, there can be no compromise between me and the Judaizers who are saying you must be circumcised to be saved. I say, you cannot be circumcised and be saved. If you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. In the end, he's going to say, you know what, circumcision is nothing. To be circumcised or not to be circumcised is nothing.

So I'm circumcised, like Jason Doam in 2016, was circumcised as a baby. It's because our medical community thinks that's a good thing to be doing. Paul's not teaching that I can't be saved now, that I have no part in Christ because that happened. But, to latch on to the teachings that you cannot be saved unless you're circumcised costs you Christ. And Paul says you cannot pay that price.

There is no playing nice with me and them. You have to pick. It's either a Christ alone, or it's Christ and this other thing. Anytime you add something and say, to be saved you must believe and trust in Christ, repent and trust in Christ, and also this other thing, if you say that's for me, then it costs you Christ. Because Christ is exclusive that way.

It's me and me alone as the only satisfaction for your soul, the minute you add anything it costs you Christ. This is what the Bible teaches. This is what Paul is teaching here when it says if you become circumcised Christ will profit you nothing. Bringing circumcision into the bargain pushes Christ outside of the bargain as far as God is concerned. God is the only one who matters.

Continuing, verse 3, And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law." So Paul is saying here, you can't just take circumcision by itself. It comes with, if circumcision for salvation comes with the whole rest of the law. If you want law keeping to be the bargain you can't just say I'll be circumcised but none of the rest of it. No, no, no. Law keeping for salvation, the whole law comes together.

You can't just carve out circumcision. No way. It all comes together. Every man who becomes circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ.

You who attempt to be justified by the law. You have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. So circumcision is nothing.

You don't benefit if you are circumcised and you are not harmed if you are not circumcised. That is why Paul can take Timothy who's half Jew, half Gentile and for the sake of advancing the gospel say will be circumcised. It's nothing. It's no good for him and it doesn't hold him back in any way because he's not doing it for salvation. He's doing it so that he can advance ministry to Jews.

He can be heard by Jews because now they know that he's circumcised. It's to remove an obstacle. It's not for salvation at all. Circumcision is nothing. To be circumcised isn't good.

To not be circumcised isn't bad. Circumcision is nothing. Back to Philippians. So Paul says, beware, beware, beware, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware the mutilation. Then Paul gives a three-fold description of the true people of God.

That's what we have here in verse 3. A three-fold description, three things that describe, are the marks of the true people of God. That's what he means when he says, we are the circumcision. In other words, we as those who are in Christ are what circumcision symbolizes people who are marked out of the world. That's what circumcision is.

It marks you as gods. You don't belong to the world. This is a mark that you belong to God. So Paul says, we are that. Those who are in Christ without needing any sort of physical mark anymore, those who are in Christ have been marked out by God to not be a part of the world but to be gods and to live for God.

Here are the three, here is the three-fold description of the true people of God. First, The true people of God worship God in the Spirit. Turn to John chapter 4. This is our last wandering. This is the last text you'll have to turn to outside of Philippians 3.

John chapter 4. Jesus is in Samaria with the half-breeds. People who don't have a good, pure Jewish line, the Samaritans. And it's the woman at the well. And Jesus has just told her that she's had five husbands, and the one she's living with now is her husband.

And she's impressed. That's where we are in the story. John chapter 4, beginning in 19, I'll read through 26. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman believe me, The hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We, we Jews, know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. When Jesus says this, we are right on the edge of the transition between the Mosaic covenant, the covenant that came through Moses, and the new covenant, which is to be sealed, which is to be put in place by the bleeding and dying of Jesus. We are right sitting on the edge of moving from this to that. In this current covenant that is enforced when Jesus says this, it was not right to worship on a mountain in Samaria, it was right to go to Jerusalem and worship there. Jesus is saying, we're almost to a place where it doesn't matter if you worship in Jerusalem, or on this mountain, or in any other place.

God is looking for people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. That does not mean that the fundamental nature of worship has changed at all. In other words, true worship of God was always spiritual worship. And you can find a condemnation in the Old Testament over and over and over again of things the Jews were doing in obedience, meaning they were doing the right outward things that were an abomination to God because their hearts were far from Him. In Malachi, God through the prophet says, will somebody not shut the doors of the temple so that they will stop coming and doing these things while their hearts are far from it.

Even though all those things would have been in obedience to things God told them to do, but without the heart God wants nothing to do with it and it's an abomination to him. That was always true. Old Testament, New Testament, to the end of time the true worship of God is a spiritual event. It always has been and it always will be. But When Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, where the transition between when it mattered where you worshiped and these very particular things that you were to do in the ordinances and when all that would become completely irrelevant.

That's why circumcision is swept away as something that matters. It's because in the New Covenant all that becomes completely irrelevant. In the Old Covenant It was heavy on location and ordinances. In the New Covenant, location is irrelevant and we are given two ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Period. That's the end of the list. What does it mean to worship in spirit? You sort of have a hard time defining exactly what that means. So I want to start with a contrast, because I think we have a much clearer sense of the opposite.

Worship in the flesh. That's pretty clear in my mind. Worship in the flesh. So that's doing things and saying things, but there's no engagement at the heart level. That would be worship in the flesh.

I might say the same things and I might do the same things, but in my heart, it's not bubbling up out of spiritual life. It's drawing near to the Lord with my lips when my heart is far from Him." It is lip service. It is the doing of things that are just external only with no heart engagement. That would be worship in the flesh. The opposite is what spiritual worship is.

It is a worship that comes out of spiritual life imparted by the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit put His hand on you and said, You're mine and gave you life through the work of Jesus Christ. And now there's worship bubbling up out of that. This is something that describes the true people of God. They may be saying the same things and doing the same things as the fakers, but it's bubbling up out of real spiritual life that has been imparted by the Spirit.

Second, so that's the first of the threefold description. The true people of God worship God in the Spirit. Second, the true people of God rejoice in Christ Jesus. The NASB and ESV render it glory instead of rejoice. I prefer that for two reasons.

One is it's a more literal rendering. So to glory or to boast in Christ Jesus, I think is closer to what the Greek actually means. But the second reason is, it's a different Greek word than the one that we already saw, two verses up, where it says, rejoice in the Lord. Now, the New King James has rendered this, rejoice in Christ Jesus, but it's a totally different Greek word. I think a better rendering is, glory, glory in Christ Jesus, Boast in Christ Jesus.

The true people of God have a certain disposition towards Jesus. They boast in Him. They're proud of Jesus. They love Jesus. He's their boast.

When they glory in something, they glory in Jesus. They don't glory in themselves, they glory in Jesus because they know that He is everything and they are nothing. This marks the true people of God. Glorying in Jesus. Next week, Paul is going to take everything else.

So you got glorying in Jesus here and there's a whole universe outside of that. So Paul is going to rope off glorying in Jesus and everything else he's going to wad up and throw in the trash. This is the disposition of a Christian. The true people of God do that. They mark off Christ.

They take the whole universe outside of that and they just wad it up and throw it in the trash can. They make a lot of Christ and they count everything else as nothing, worthless. First, the true people of God worship God in the Spirit. Second, the true people of God rejoice in Christ Jesus, or they boast in Him, or they glory in Him. Thirdly, the true people of God have no confidence in the flesh.

The true people of God have thought about a lot what they can and can't do in their own strength. They have stared at the ceiling and thought about all the things they can do in their own strength and all the things they can't do in their own strength. And they've realized that the things that they can do in their own strength don't matter at all. And the things that are really critical, they have no ability to do in their own strength. And so they've turned their back on their own strength and they've walked away.

They have no confidence in the flesh. 100% of their weight is on Christ. 100% of their confidence. No confidence in the flesh. 0% in the flesh.

100% on Christ and His person of work. They see through the lens of Isaiah 64 where God says all your righteousness is like filthy rags. So, The best, all the best that my flesh can produce, they understand that when God looks at that, the best output of your own strength, when God looks at it, he says, that is filthy, That is disgusting. He abhors it. So they've been given the grace to be able to see through God's eyes the best that man can render, and that is disgusting to God.

And so they've turned their back on that and walked away from it. They've run to Christ. So we should look at these three markers. Worshipping God in the Spirit. Glorifying in Christ Jesus.

Having no confidence in the flesh and say, is this me? If this describes the true people of God, can it be rightly said that I belong, I belong here, I belong among the people who are described by these three things. Back to Philippians. Our final three verses, verses four through six, read along. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so circumcise the eighth day, the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews concerning the law a Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless.

Here in these three verses we get Paul's fleshly credentials. If you're filling in blanks on the handout. Fleshly credentials. Paul gives us his resume. He gives us his fleshly credentials.

He's working to convince you that his are better than yours. My resume is better than your resume. When I wad up my resume and throw it in the trash can you'll know that's your cue to wad up your pitiful little resume and throw it in the trash can too because if I can't trust in mine and mine's a lot better than yours, then you can't trust in yours, and you should throw away yours too. This is the whole line of reasoning. If anyone can have confidence in the flesh, it's me, and I can't, so that means so much more so, you can't.

So just, like, stop it now. If anybody's going to get by on their resume, it's Paul. And he says, there's no way I'm getting by on my resume. So that's our signal to stop it. God has a chosen people, I'm part of that chosen people.

Any Jews in the room? We'll probably have some Jewish blood in the room. Doesn't count. Not pure enough. Not as pure as Paul's Jewish blood.

The people of God are to receive the mark of the covenant on the eighth day. That happened with me. I'm not some proselyte who came into Judaism late in life. No, eighth day, my parents had me there getting the mark of being in the covenant with the people of God. The tribe of Benjamin is privileged in many ways.

I am a member of the tribe of Benjamin. Jerusalem, the temple, is within the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin. We think of it as part of Judah, and that's only sort of right. It's actually physically within the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin. First king of Israel comes from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul.

Okay, so what was Saul who became Paul named after King Saul? You betcha, at least I think he was. When the ten tribes broke off, David was from the tribe of Judah and one tribe stuck with him. Who was it? The tribe of Benjamin.

So the southern kingdom was Judah and Benjamin, all by themselves. The other ten tribes formed the northern kingdom. When they came back from captivity in Ezra chapter 1, almost all of those returning came from two tribes. Who was it? Judah and Benjamin.

You might want to be a Levite, or you want to be from Judah, or you want to be from Judah, or you want to be from Benjamin. They're privileged tribes. He's from one of the privileged tribes. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm the consummate Jew.

I'm a shining example of Jewishness. If There's a picture in the dictionary by Israelite. It's my picture. Look up my mom's line. Pure Jew.

Look up my dad's line. Pure Jew. I'm pure Jew. I have the best credentials if you consider the law. I'm a Pharisee.

In Acts 23 we see that he's the son of a Pharisee. He's a multi-generational Pharisee. In Acts chapter 22, we see that he was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, a famous rabbi Pharisee. I'm a multi-generational Pharisee with the best teachers. The Pharisees, so there are three major groups within Judaism at the time of Paul.

Herodians, who were making nice with the Romans, they were sellouts. And Sadducees, who were very worldly, and who didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead, and they didn't believe in angels and spirits. So their doctrine is terrible. And then the Pharisees, who have the best doctrine in their most careful lives. I am a Pharisee.

In fact, I'm a Pharisee under the best Rabbi, trained in Jerusalem. I got the best doctrine. I got the most careful life. I have the best credentials if you consider zeal. I'm more zealous about my business than you're zealous about yours.

Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 1. This is Galatians 1, 13 and 14. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers." In the religious life of Israel, there is a fast track. Paul is on the fast track.

Why? Because he is more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers. And why was he displaying it in the zeal with which he goes after the church? Those blaspheming Christians. I have the best credentials if you consider the righteousness which is in the law I'm blameless no man can look at my life and say you're a law breaker I got the outside all cleaned up everything's in order Paul says I have the best resume I have the best credentials of what a human can be on his own or on her own.

And you say, Paul, then where are you going? And Paul says, to find a trash can. To find a trash can. For this ratty old resume. It's just it's not going to do God's too holy God is not impressed That I'm an Israelite God is not impressed that I was circumcised on the eighth day.

God is not impressed that I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. God is not impressed that I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. God is not impressed that I'm a Pharisee, or a multi-generational Pharisee, or a Pharisee who was trained under Gamaliel. God is not impressed that I was zealous. God is not impressed that I have an outward righteousness that no man can reproach.

God is not impressed. God will not receive me based on any of these things. God will not receive me based on all of these things. Let's apply this to you and me. We're out of time, but we must apply.

What does this mean for you and me? My family tree cannot save me. Your family tree cannot save you. God has no grandchildren. Just memorize that phrase.

God has no grandchildren. God only has children. You say, but my parents have saving faith. God has no grandchildren. You are either His son or daughter, or you are nothing.

Your parents' faith will not save you. If your parents have the deepest faith, it means nothing for you in your state before God. The outward marks cannot save you. The outward marks cannot save me. I've been baptized, who cares?

I take the Lord's Supper every week, who cares? I come to all your church meetings, who cares? I know how to say the things. You know what I mean? I know how to say the things.

When you corner me and try to ask me uncomfortable questions, I know how to say the things. When you corner me and try to ask me uncomfortable questions, I know how to say the things. Who cares? It doesn't mean that baptism doesn't matter. I'm talking about with respect to being united to Christ, and being saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

That's what I'm talking about. Yes, you should be baptized. Yes, there are benefits to the Lord's Supper. Yes, come to the church meetings. We want you to come to the church meetings.

We're going to hassle you if you don't come to the church meetings. We want to be together. We think it's good to be together. I'm glad you know how to articulate truth. It's good to be able to say the right things, but these things mean nothing with respect to whether you're united to Christ or not by faith.

Not even your privileged heritage will save you. But I'm the pastor's son. Dome children, it means nothing that you're my son. Lungquist children, it means nothing between you and God that you're the pastor's son. Nothing.

It buys you nothing with God. My dad leads this at church. Your external reputation will not save you. My external reputation might save me. In other words, if I've got everyone in the room who thinks I'm born again, it doesn't make me born again.

It just means you're really good at fooling people. And you might even be really good at fooling yourself. That's what the Bible says. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17 verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things. We're not just talking about deceiving others, we're talking about deceiving yourself. You're really good at deceiving yourself. Your heart is desperately wicked.

Your external reputation will not save you. Your sound doctrine will not save you. Say, I'm there every week. I agree! I believe it's true.

This does not mean you have turned from wickedness and embraced the work of Jesus Christ only for salvation. Believing what you hear on Sundays is not equal to that. I hope you believe what you hear. I hope the Bible is compelling and convincing to you. But spiritual life comes with repenting and believing in Christ.

There are many people sound in their doctrine who will take their sound doctrine to hell. Do you know that? There are many people just sound, rock solid sound in their doctrine. They are going to hell because they are not in vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ because they have repented and believe the gospel. My law keeping will not save me.

Your law keeping will not save you. You know how easy external righteousness comes? Yes, there are people that just plunge themselves, like they don't even care what you think. They plunge themselves headlong into scandalous sin and they're serving themselves. There are more people than that who have their act together externally who are serving themselves through that.

Did you know that? Most people who have their act together externally are doing all that to serve themselves. It's good for you in so many ways. People appreciate you. People think well of you.

People don't hassle you. For every one person who just doesn't care what you think and plunges themselves headlongs into sin, there are ten who have their act together externally and are no more saved than the people who are giving themselves over to their lusts. They're giving themselves over to different lusts that you can't see. All of my passion for church things will not save me. All of your passion for church things.

You can be passionate for church things, but never having repented and believed the gospel. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Period. There is no comma there. Period.

End of story. That is the only way to be saved. And yes, when that happens, when you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, in time there is fruit in your life so that people can see things and say, wow, it looks like he's saved. But don't confuse that as being what unites you to Christ. It isn't.

It's trusting Him. It's turning from all those other things to glory in Christ. Turn away from all those things. Turn your back and run to Christ. That is what saves you.

You must be born again. Are you born again? You can do all those things without being born again. God, I pray that your spirit would fall upon us to help us to know if our confidence is really in any of these things. I Pray that you would help us to turn our back on these things and to run to Christ.

In Jesus' name, Amen.