Well, let's begin by reading our text, Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. And I'll be reading today from the Legacy Standard Bible, which is the latest revision of the New American Standard Bible. It's an old favorite of ours. And let's begin then, Philippians chapter 3, 1 through 11. Quote, Finally, my brothers, 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 circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcise the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of heresy, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish. so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith. that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Well, may the Lord add his blessing to this reading of his holy and fully inspired and inerrant word. Amen. What we have here is the apostolic exercise of the ministry of remembrance. And what I mean by that is that he is reminding his readers of certain essential principles of the gospel. And he's doing so because of the presence of false teachers. And, I might add, he's doing so because the gospel is so counterintuitive to the natural mind that it cannot believe it. And even the regenerate mind, because we're not fully redeemed in our bodies yet, has a default point to another system of works righteousness, which is utterly contrary to the gospel. So this text today is very applicable to you and me. for the simple reason that most of what calls itself Christianity in the West is, in fact, a mere caricature of biblical Christianity. Oh, it looks Christian enough, it sounds Christian, and it uses Christian terms and symbols, but its, quote, gospel, end quote, and its practices represent a frightening departure from the truth of the apostolic gospel of grace. What is preached today is a gospel that produces only a powerless form of godliness, a powerless form of godliness that is devoid of the image of Christ. And consequently, the image of Christ is almost lost within the Christian community and thus American society as well. So beloved, let us hear the words of the apostle today as he exercises this apostolic tradition of continually reminding the church of the character and nature of the gospel of grace. And let's give thanks for that reminder. So the first thing the apostle does is he tells us to rejoice in the Lord. He has made two chapters prior to this of setting forth his greetings. It's a friendship epistle, if you will. He's given us this wonderful old hymn of the church. It has to do with the anonymity, the humility, and the unconditional obedience of Christ himself, to which we are to model ourselves. And now he's telling us to rejoice in the Lord. Finally, my brethren, given all that the Lord has done on our behalf, rejoice therefore in the Lord. Now the implication here, of course, is that we should not rejoice in whom? That's right, ourselves. Rejoice in the Lord as opposed to rejoicing or boasting in our own works. And he says, to write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. He's caring about the fact that he has to be repetitious in this presentation of the gospel to his readers. It has been said that repetition is the best teacher known to man. And I don't know that you and I can ever escape the consequences or the dangers, the threats that are posed daily to us by forgetting the gospel. we have a built-in forgetter. And so we do need to remind ourselves daily of the glories and the nature and the character and the unconditional sovereign grace at work in our lives. So his call for them to rejoice in the Lord is a reminder for them not to rejoice in their own accomplishments. And then he warns his readers to watch out for those who would redirect them and back into those same personal accomplishments. In fact, look at the language here. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. Who in the world is he speaking of here? And do we have dogs, evildoers and mutilators leading our churches today? It's a very interesting question. At the risk of sounding coarse, I might say that most of our churches, certainly churches that I've visited in recent decades, oftentimes do have a kind of a canine odor, a canine odor of a kennel. And regarding evildoers, there is no greater evil than preaching a man-centered, people-pleasing gospel. I mean, it's scarcely possible to find good preaching these days. And what I mean by good is not entertaining and inspirational. I'm talking about good exegetical based exposition of the text so that we're hearing the words of life and not some charming eloquence of some wisdom philosophy passing as a sermon. And while no one's likely to demand literal circumcision as a religious ritual today, there is a whole stream of theology that insists that baptism, especially infant baptism, represents the carrying forward of the old covenant circumcision into the new covenant. So yes, we have churches that smell like there's perhaps dogs hanging out in the pulpit. There may even be evildoers at work in some churches, many churches, certainly on the TV networks. So yes, we face some of the same dangers as did the Philippians. Many today would also be offended by Paul's language, though. It seems harsh, unkind, even non-Christian. But once you understand Paul is speaking the truth of these Jewish Christian leaders who would turn his readers away from Christ in favor of a system of self-justification, even while they continue to profess Christ, we can then better understand Paul's intensity. In other words, Paul is jealous for Christ and his gospel. He does not want his readers to shrink or think of the false teachers as in any way legitimate or their perverted gospel as equal to the gospel that Paul preaches. So Paul uses language that clearly delineates these men as evil workers. And this isn't the only place that Paul does this. In 2 Corinthians 11, he refers to these ministers who appear as, put the disguise of ministers of righteousness, but in fact, who are ministers of the angel of light, that is to say, Satan himself. So this is a theme. This is a theme that not only is the gospel counterintuitive to the natural mind, but there is a, from the time of the apostles, there was a counter gospel, an alternative gospel being advanced by men who claimed to be ministers of righteousness, but who were in fact ministers of the angel of light, Satan himself. Satan, remember, is the great counterfeiter. Paul understands that. So he's not pulling any punches here. He knows that these dogs, these evil workers, these mutilators of the flesh, if they get a hold of your mind, they will turn you away from Christ and back to yourself. So the first thing we need to be reminded of then is to rejoice in the Lord and not in ourselves. Our righteousness is found in Christ and not in our own works, not even in our faith. For that too, as we know, is the gift of God. And second, we are being reminded to be intensely, listen now, intolerant of false teachers. That is to say, anyone who would turn you away from Christ in favor of a system of self-justification, self-salvation. And I'll explain more about that in a minute. We must never seek common ground or fellowship with those who teach another gospel, other than the gospel of grace alone, through faith alone, and the finished work of Christ alone. In 2 Corinthians 11, the reference I made just a few minutes ago, Paul tells them that he's jealous for them, with a godly jealousy. Let me ask you, are you jealous for Christ and his gospel? or knowing that we live in a time of tolerance and niceness, where we're afraid to be offensive, that we're allowing people and men to come into the churches, to creep into the churches, as Jude says, and begin to teach gospels, begin to teach doctrines that lead us away from Christ, and ultimately sever us from Christ. How could we even imagine being tolerant of that kind of thing? But we are. So we're being reminded here that our intense devotion to Jesus Christ demands an intensity of intolerance towards things that aren't of him. And Paul goes on. For it is we who are the circumcision. we who serve God by his Spirit." Now, these false teachers were trying to lure these Gentiles into their system that began by circumcision and then led to observing holy days and Sabbath days and festivals and dietary laws. In other words, they wanted them to observe Jewish traditions and show themselves to be good Jews in order to receive the Jewish Messiah. Basically what they were saying is that the grace that's in Christ Jesus the cross and the resurrection on their behalf is not sufficient These teachers were saying no no, it's it's necessary We believe in faith Abraham was a man of faith We believe that Jesus is the Messiah but we insist the Gentiles have to be circumcised and observe the law of Moses and And there are teachers today who would tell you that same thing. They are so obsessed with Israel. They are so obsessed with the Old Covenant. They are so obsessed with the law that they would make you a Christian version of a Jewish New Testament. Rather than being under the New Covenant, they would blend the old and the new together and say, well, now that's Christianity. And that's exactly what was happening. For it is we who are the true circumcision, says the New American Standard. We who serve God by His Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. There's the choice, boasting in Christ or boasting in yourself. You may say, Rick, I don't know if anybody walks around boasting about themselves. Well, beloved, it's very subtle. There's a twinkle in their eye and a smirk on their face. They believe that Christ's death is necessary. It's just not sufficient, apart from their contribution, which I'll talk about in just a minute. It's a Christ plus me theme that they're carrying. See, if you believe that all that the Father has done by sending his Son into the world can be trumped by you believing or not believing, and that God is powerless to save you unless you let him, then you have something that falls short of the gospel. And that's all it takes to fall short. Now, New Testament circumcision, therefore, is found not in the waters of baptism, very important now, but in the regeneration of the spirit, the circumcision of the heart, not in the cutting away of the flesh. The result of what Paul refers to as our true circumcision is that we now serve God by his spirit, that we boast in Christ Jesus and place no confidence in our ability to save ourselves, even with God's help. See, that's the false gospel. Who saves who? Is it God who saves? Is salvation of the Lord from start to finish? Or is it salvation of the Lord who makes it possible for you to save yourself? It's very subtle, it's very insidious, and it's all so common. So let me ask you now, where is your boast? Where is your confidence? Many professing Christians, like Paul, have faultless religious credentials. They've been baptized and confirmed. They've been raised as Christians in this or that tradition. They're keeping the rules and practices of that tradition and the righteousness based on those practices. They are found faultless. They are dream members. For every pastor, for any pastor, these are dream members. Remember, these false teachers, if they showed up in the churches today, they would be a pastor's dream. Well-disciplined, well-ordered, good people. who have rejected Christ as Christ's sufficiency in their life. It reminds me of the story I heard one time. I think it was Michael Horton who was telling this story, and he was quoting someone else, and I'm sorry I don't remember. They were talking about what would happen if the devil took over a town. Of course, immediately we have images of drugs and prostitutes and crime and dark alleys and police sirens. But that's not it. Michael Horton went on to say, no, no. We would have well-groomed yards, children playing, neighbors waving to each other. shiny cars, nice homes, and a steepled white church down at the end of the road where the gospel is not preached. That's what happens when Satan takes over a town. Looks good, sounds good, but it's of Satan, not of the Spirit. So where is your religious credentials that which you fall back on? Is that the ground of your confidence, your tradition, or the fact that you were baptized or confirmed, or that you attend church regularly, that you receive the sacrament? What is the ground of your confidence? And we're being reminded today that the ground of our confidence is in Christ's finished work on our behalf, in Christ's righteousness imputed to us, and then worked out in our character. Now, I'm not suggesting that all church activities and traditions are evil. Many of your church activities have their place, and I would not deny that, but they must never become the ground of your confidence before God. Let me illustrate. I once sat at the bedside of a dying man for several hours. And after he passed away, I listened as his clergyman assured the family that he had, quote, died in the faith. And I remember wondering, what does that mean? Because my concern, not to seem arrogant or boastful, but my concern was, did he die in Christ? That was my overriding concern. And that's what we had been praying for for hours. That was the question. Did he die in Christ? But for this clergyman, this meant for him that the man had died in good standing within his tradition. So the family took comfort, not in the Lord, but in the dead man's religious tradition. That's how insidious this can be. So we are to rejoice in the Lord and not in ourselves. We are to be reminded constantly of certain essential principles of the gospel. And we are to be intensely intolerant of anyone who would draw us away from Christ and back to salvation that is of ourselves and not of Christ. Now, when I say intensely intolerant, I'm not talking about being mean-spirited, name-calling, arrogant. That's not what Paul's doing either. He's identifying these men as evil workers and mutilators of the flesh and dogs. It's a very common term in Jewish society to refer to evil people as dogs. He's identifying them again. He doesn't want his readers to begin to see these men as legitimate. So he takes extreme measures. If we know somebody who's walking in error, we should reach out to them, we should plead with them, we should pray for them, even with tears if necessary. We must never elevate ourselves above another. It should break our hearts that people are walking away into some kind of phony doctrine that will pull them away from Christ. but we should be intolerant of false teaching. That's the point. And this includes those who merely insist that we are in Christ by our own choice and remain in Christ on that same basis. That's the most popular teaching, but that's not the biblical teaching. But by doing, by his doing, Paul said in the first Corinthians, you are in Christ Jesus, not by some choice you made at a crusade one day. And this is something that the natural mind can't wrap its head around, can't wrap itself around. It's got to include me. It's got to be something I did. You say, well, I believed. Yes, you did. But why did you believe? That's the issue. How did you believe? How did you go from being a hostile sinner to a child of God? And certainly it wasn't because you were of some choice that you made. your own, autonomous from grace. No, it was grace that moved upon your heart, mind, and will. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 that he made us alive from a state of dead and transgressions and sins. So anybody who walks around thinking that by some autonomous free will choice that they suddenly just decided to be a Christian is ill-informed at best and heretical at worst. And so this principle that salvation is holy of the Lord and not in ourselves is a theme throughout the whole Bible. So it's not just the overt, blatant false teachers and cults who we need to be aware of here that Paul's warning us of. Rather, it's those who are very covert. Remember, a little leaven will leaven the whole lump of dough, and it only takes one fly to spoil the ointment. Likewise, there are those who would agree that grace is necessary, That faith in Christ Christ is necessary is just not sufficient apart from man's contribution. And in the end, we must be jealous for the truth that grace, faith, and the cross are not only necessary, they are also all sufficient. And that the ability to believe even itself is a work of grace. and should not be categorized, should not be viewed as something that we added to the finished work of Christ in order to make Christ's work effectual in our life. Listen, faith is not man's vital contribution to his own salvation. Faith is a work of grace. Let's look again at Paul's testimony. Verse seven, he goes on. But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ 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. Can you pick up on the passion that this apostle has for Christ? The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith, he says. I want to know Christ. Nothing compares to Christ for Paul. Nothing. And we are to be reminded of this. Elsewhere, Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. I want to know Christ, he says in verse 10. Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings. See, if you're going to walk in the power of the resurrection, you're going to have people reject you. If you're going to walk in the power of Christ's resurrection in your life, and that's going to be where your confidence is, then you're going to have even persecution. So we need to be anxious to walk in the power of his resurrection and be prepared for his sufferings as well, becoming like him even in his death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Taking up our cross and following Jesus is essential discipleship. So what I want you to see here is that Paul is reminding us that Christ is our core our absolute, our most important passion. Christ himself, not our tradition, not our church building, not our clergy, not our anything else. Christ himself is the passion of our life. You notice here, he says several things, personal gains, everything, all things, righteousness, that's not my own, that comes from the law, all of which he considers garbage. compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. You can consider otherwise good things to be garbage, because they are, when compared to Christ. In other words, Paul wanted Christ, and above all things, to be like Christ, period. He knew, and listened carefully, that only the pure gospel of Christ as revealed by the Spirit through the scriptures would bring him into that glorious position of Christ-likeness. This is one of the most important things that we need to be reminded of today. In this ministry of remembrance is that why it is so heinous to deviate from the gospel today is because The gospel is the means, the God-ordained means by which we attain to Christ's likeness. And anything short of the truth of the gospel will leave us stuck. And wherever the mind goes, the heart will follow. And we'll end up back in love with ourselves and not Christ. In our day, when it seems so important to be tolerant and nice, Paul is modeling for us what it means to be a lover of Christ. We know that instinctively, don't we? We know that intuitively. That if you're a lover, you don't have multiple lovers. If you're a lover, to be a true lover of Christ, you don't have alternative Christ, alternative Gospels laying around. You are devoted to Him and Him alone. And so he's reminding us of what it means, listen now, to be a Christian. So, we rejoice in the Lord and not in ourselves. We are willing to be reminded of the essentials of the gospel. We are intensely intolerant of those who would draw us away from Christ. We are intensely intolerant of false teaching. that even our own religious credentials and accomplishments are garbage in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ. The great passion of the Christian life is Christ himself, for whom we gladly lose all. We're being reminded that it's the righteousness of Christ and not our own that saves us. And we're being reminded that we want to be like Christ, even in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, in order to attain to the resurrection from the dead. In other words, Paul's saying we are to be conformed to Christ in every way. Ever-increasing conformity to Christ is the evidence of your assurance. It's the evidence that you're in Christ. In other words, the Christian faith at its essence, beloved, is relational. And Christ is the sole object of our relational desire. All of our other relationships flow out from that relationship. That's why a Christ-centered marriage It's what we want, Christ-centered relationships with our children, Christ-centered relationships with each other in the church, Christ-centered relationships with people, even unbelievers. Yes, we can have a Christ-centered relationship with anyone because we are Christ-centered. We can treat them as Christ treats them. We can love them as Christ loves them. The fact that the Christian faith is relational means also that it's not a one-and-done event. Rather, it's a moment-by-moment reality of being encountered by the risen Christ through the work of the Spirit as revealed in Scripture. And anything less is a sham religion. Turn with me, if you like, to 2 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 8. He says, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. There's Paul telling Timothy to remember, remember these things according to my gospel, for which I am in chains as a criminal. I'm in chains, Timothy. Paul says, I'm in chains like a criminal, but remember my gospel. Remember the thing that got me here. Don't forget. But the word of God is not chained, he said. For this reason, I endure all things for the elect's sake. For the sake of the elect, Paul was willing, even willing, more than willing to go to jail in order to ensure the purity of the gospel being preached for the elect's sake. See, it's the purity of the gospel that brings us into Christ. It's the purity of the gospel that keeps us in Christ. And it's the purity of the gospel that by which God uses to conform us into his son's image. So he says, I endure all things for the sake of the elect so that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then drop down, he says again, remind them of these things, solemnly charging them in the presence of God, not to dispute about words, don't get off track, don't get waylaid. This is useless and leads only to the ruin of hearers. Be diligent instead to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Timothy, accurately handling the word of truth. Let me say it again. We're being reminded of the need to accurately handle the word of truth because it is the means by which the elect come into Christ. It is the means by which the elect are built up and edified in Christ. It is the means by which we experience ever increasing conformity to Christ so that the image of Christ is evident in the church and ultimately in society. This is why we contend for the gospel. Now let me quickly just point to Peter and Jude. I'll keep this brief. But I want you to see that this isn't just Paul. This is the apostolic ministry of remembrance at work here. And from this day forward, we're gonna want to be careful to be exercising this ministry, constantly reminding ourselves, each other, and anyone who will listen of the nature and character and the glorious nature of the gospel of grace. So Peter echoes Paul in 2nd Peter saying, beginning with verse 12 of chapter 1, quote, therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been establishing the truth which is present with you. There you go. Peter is anxious to remind his readers of these things. I consider it right, as long as I'm in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder. See, there's always this temptation to start drifting. There's always this default, this natural default to a system, this compulsion to move towards a system of self-salvation. So he tells them in verses 20 and 21, later on in 2nd Peter 1, quote, And then in chapter three, he concludes, this is now, beloved, the second letter I'm writing to you in which I'm stirring up your sincere mind by what? By way of reminder that you should remember the words of spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Now real quickly, Jude also writes, quote, in verse five of his little one chapter epistle, he said, verse five. Wow. Why would Jude want to remind us of this horrific period in redemptive history? Why is this important that he remind us? Remember, this is the Holy Spirit, through Jude, reminding us. And it's because people who identified themselves as the people of God proved, in the end, to be devoid, devoid of faith in God, and thus were destroyed. So you might ask, what did these people trust in? I mean, they came out of Egypt. They followed Moses out of Egypt. What did they ultimately end up trusting in? Well, ultimately, many of them wanted to return to Egypt, you might remember. They were willing to return to bondage. At least they had food. At least they had stability. Even slavery to Pharaoh, they thought, was better than learning to trust Yahweh to save and provide. Think of that. That's why people today are more interested in maintaining their position in their unbiblical tradition than they are in trusting Yahweh, trusting God, trusting the Lord. There are people who know that the teaching they're getting or the very structure of their religious tradition, their denomination, is opposed to the gospel, and yet they stay there because, after all, that's where their friends are. Can you imagine Paul thinking like that? Not in a thousand years. He left everything. He left his home. He left his Judaism. He left his credentials in Judaism. No doubt that as a Jewish man, his family disowned him, considered him dead to them. He lost any fortune that he had accumulated. He lost everything for the sake of Christ. And these people who came out of Egypt weren't willing to do that. They were happy to join the bandwagon. They were happy to follow Moses out of Egypt. They were happy to get through the Red Sea. But on the other side, it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? What are we going to wear? We're in the wilderness. What's going to happen? Let's go back to Egypt. See, they knew where they stood with Pharaoh, but they didn't know what to expect from God. Many people today would rather be comfortable with the familiar than to trust God. The gospel of self-justification offers the illusion of control under the guise of faith. Well, we're going to end there. We'll pick up next time in part two of this series of the Ministry of Remembrance and continue to see how the apostles call us back time and again to the truth of the gospel and which is so important for you and I to grasp daily. Who's the most important person that I preach the gospel to? Me. And then my family. and my close friends and those who I hope to be my friends one day and to you. So we'll pick this up next time and continue in our study of the Ministry of Remembrance. Amen.