All right, we continue our exposition from the book of Philippians. So join me in Philippians chapter three, and as I get there and as you get there, I will fess up to one thing, and that is that all of my prep and planning was done with an ESV, so if you are going with an ASB, it won't quite sound the same, and I apologize in advance. All right, we're gonna open up with Philippians chapter three, and the first six verses is what we're gonna be talking about tonight. So join me as I read through that, and then we will go ahead and start talking through it. Philippians 3.1, Paul says, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, and as to righteousness under the law, blameless. So as we begin this chapter, Paul starts with that first word, finally. That serves as a transition word for potentially two reasons. One, Paul might be indicating to his reader that he's gonna start wrapping things up, that now he's about halfway through and he's going to begin to put his concluding thoughts into this word. Secondly, it could just convey to the reader that he's having a change in topic. It's sort of like when you're writing an essay in school, and they teach you to go first, and second, and thirdly, and then finally, as you go through your paragraphs. But to whatever reason Paul's intending, he does begin this chapter that way, saying, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. He chooses to take this as an opportunity to pause, and to give a command to his audience in the Philippian church, and tells them that he wants them to rejoice in the Lord. He's given them already a great reason to do so. As we have gone through the first two chapters together, Paul has been very encouraging, and he's been talking great things about the Philippian church. This is one of his epistles where he's not overtly writing to them about any sort of sin issue or problem that he's heard about in the church, but he's writing to them very encouraging words. If you were to go back through and look at this entire book of Philippians and try to find all the times that Paul uses the word rejoice, you find that he has weaved a common thread through this book as he continues to use it from beginning to end. Examples of it are going to be in Philippians 1, verse 18. He says, What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. In chapter 2, verses 17 and 18, he says, yes, and I will rejoice. That's also part of chapter 1, verse 18. Chapter 2, 17 and 18, Paul says, even if I am poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. In chapter 2, verse 28, Paul says, I am more eager to send him, speaking of Epaphroditus, therefore that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I might be less anxious. And then we have here in Philippians 3.1, he tells him to rejoice. Philippians 4.4, Paul tells him, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. And in Philippians 4.10, he says, So from the first chapter early on to the end of this epistle that he's writing, he's constantly reminding the Philippians that they have reason to rejoice. A reason that is found in the way that they're living their lives rightly for Christ. highlighting for them in chapter one that to live is Christ, and that they're advancing the gospel with him. And in chapter two, using an example of Christ's humility, talking about how they are to be lights in the world, and then highlighting Timothy and Epaphroditus as two good examples of people who are living that life accordingly. And Paul gives them this great opportunity to do this. If you were to not only consider the word rejoice, but consider similar words like glad or joy, you'd find about a dozen other examples in the book of Philippians that you could go to and see Paul weave this encouragement in there. So he begins this way, and in this verse one, the second part of it, he doesn't change his tone. Instead, he writes more encouragement to them. He tells them that to write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Paul seems to be communicating with the Philippian church that he is repeating things that he's already taught or told them, whether when he was there physically, or perhaps in other writings, but that he has taught them many things, and it's no problem to him to do the same. Instead, he views it as a good opportunity, and he says it's actually a safeguard, or it's safe for them, to help be a protection for them. And Paul's gonna use that very point as an example to set off what the rest of Philippians 3 is going to set us up for. Or if he's talking about repeating the things that he's taught them. He's referring to what he's taught them already, what he's talked about here in the first two chapters of Philippians, but also what he's about to tell them. And I like that he uses this idea of it's safe for them, because the very next thing that he's going to do is he's going to warn them. And through that warning, he is going to help to provide a way and recommendation of how they can live their lives to remain safe in their faith. In verse 2, Paul says, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, and look out for those who mutilate the flesh. It seems like a pretty quick and sort of abrupt pivoting in Paul's train of thought. Note here that Paul doesn't really identify very pointedly who he's talking about, but if we look at the three sort of descriptors, dogs, evildoers, and those who mutilate the flesh, you see it's probably no one good, and it might be a little bit insulting. We don't often call people dogs in an encouraging way. So our question is then, who is Paul talking about? Because he doesn't say, these are the people, or this is the person. He just says, look out, look out, and look out for these people. For us to get a contextual understanding of what Paul might be talking about here, we read on to the next verse. In verse 3, it says, for we are the circumcision. That first word he starts it off with, for, it's a bit of a comparison word. It could be like for or because, connecting the previous thought that he had to what he's just saying now. And for us, that may give us the context to indicate who Paul is talking about and insulting this way. For us, since Paul's highlighting on this idea of circumcision, we could be led to believe that Paul might be talking about those who are perhaps teaching about the circumcision. Paul actually has a pretty long history in his ministry, fighting against a group of people called the the Judaizers. They were a group of people who would distort the teachings in the church. They would teach that, yes, your faith in Christ is great, but you have to also carry along all of the Judaistic practices with the Mosaic law and rabbinical law, to say that you have to still follow the law of Moses as you place your faith in Christ, and they start introducing works into salvation. saying that their faith alone wasn't enough, but they also had to meet the works of the law to actually be saved. And like I said, Paul fought against this group most of his ministry. One example that we could go to this is in the book of Titus. I'll flip there and I'll read it for us. Titus is a later writing of Paul's. He's writing to someone that he ministered with, and he taught Titus. In verse 10, Paul has just explained to Titus what qualifications of elders should be, and he tells him that elders are to give sound doctrine and to rebuke those that contradict it. And then in verse 10, Paul begins to warn Titus Because Paul knows that there is an infiltrating group of Judaizers that are there on the island of Crete that are going to try to dissuade the work that Titus is doing with his flock. And Paul tells him in verse 10, for there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true, therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. So by putting that, perhaps, into view, we can see that maybe, in verse two, Paul kind of pulled his punches a little bit, referring to this group, as he seems to be much more forthright with Titus in describing his real feelings for them. But describing them in this way, that they are a group of people that are beginning to teach the Jewish myths and customs. And he's showing Titus and warning him about the things that they can do among that church. and warns him against it. It may even be for us that we can connect this verse to, and who Paul's talking about with, who he's referring to later in this chapter. Because later in this chapter, in verses 18 and 19, Paul says this. He says, It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think that Paul is warning of the same group of people, just these few verses further down in our text. But look at how he describes them, the enemies of the cross of Christ, to say that they are actively working against the gospel by distorting what is being taught by Paul and by the leaders in the church who have learned from Paul, and they're going against it. He says, their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. With this, we can even see a bit of a comparison by Paul. Because what Paul talks about in verse 3, saying that we are the circumcision, he's not referring to a physical circumcision there. He's not saying, well, we, all of us, have been circumcised. No, instead what he's talking about with circumcision is a circumcision of the heart, where Paul understood well what circumcision really meant. and that as a physical sign it had value, but those that are of the circumcision, those that are true Christians, have had their hearts circumcised. For that, he might go back to an understanding from his background, say from the Old Testament law on something like Deuteronomy 36, which would read, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul that you may live. So Paul is contrasting those who are the evildoers, those who are teaching about circumcision, as Paul puts it, as a mutilation of the flesh, something that is being taught by the Judaizers to do to earn merit and favor in God's eyes. And instead of saying that, no, those that are real Christians are this way, in verse three he describes it. He says, they are those who worship the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. This actually is a nice contrasting parallel with the same group that he describes later in this chapter. From the group of, from verses 18 to 19, he says their God is their belly. That their God is all about their own fleshly desires, that is their concern and what they're worried about feeding and meeting. Whereas in verse 3, he says, well, true Christians worship by the Spirit of God. That they worship God instead of themselves, worried about the things of God and not the things of man. And secondly, you can look at the next part, where it says that they glory in their shame. bringing glory, or another way to translate that word glory would be boasting or exalting. To say that they are boasting or finding glory in the things that they shouldn't find glory in. Things that are bad, things that are sinful, things that are against God and his teachings. And Paul contrasts that in verse 3 and says that true Christians glory in Christ Jesus instead. And thirdly, In verse 19, Paul says that these enemies of the cross, well, their mind is set on earthly things, things out around them, meaning the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, perhaps trying to live a works-based salvation, to earn their own merit, and to work that towards their account with God, trying to prove their own worth that way. Their mind is on earthly things. In a contrast, Paul says in verse 3 that true Christians put no confidence, no confidence in the flesh. He draws that contrast there. Paul's particularly concerned about this group because he's seen the damage that they can do. We looked at the book of Titus. That's when Paul's an older man and he's much more wisened and he's had experience in this conflict. But Paul also came across this group when he's writing to the church in Galatia, in Galatians. Some, I looked it up because I want to be sure, but some would say Galatians is perhaps the earliest epistle of Paul in the canon of the Bible. So it's earlier on in Paul's ministry that he writes this, where he probably wasn't as wisened as he was when it came to the time where he wrote the Epistle to Titus. But we see in Galatians the way that he reacts to how this group of false teachers, these Judaizers, have gotten into the church and have corrupted the body of believers that are there. Pastor Jim spoke somewhat on them this morning as well. We can see in the book of Galatians in chapter 1 verses 6 and 7 in a very different tone than he approaches writing Philippians to the church in Philippi. In verses 6 or 7, Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Paul's astonished that those people that he had led to Christ and have taught and worked to disciple, and have now seen them blossom as a church, that they have so quickly abandoned that original teaching that Paul gave them. A teaching that Paul gave from his first-hand account, as Pastor Jim talked this morning, preaching Christ crucified. Where, although he wasn't there, teaching as if it was very present before them. And we see Paul, again, talking about the same group in Galatians 3, where he says, And then he goes on to confront them about their crisis in faith, as they are giving way to false teaching that has come into the church by these Judaizers. So from early on in his ministry to late in his ministry, Paul is constantly facing the onslaught that these Judaizers are bringing to the young church and the young Christians that are there. And Paul, not being able to be there with them physically to help them refute and rebuke and to go against that teaching, tries to do his best in these letters to encourage them to stick true to the things that Paul has originally taught them. and also to rebuke those that are teaching falsely, as we saw in Titus. I think part of it, too, must sort of strike Paul personally, as Paul was very much on the path in Judaism himself before being rescued by Christ. I think he understood well what it meant to follow the law of Moses. Not only that, but also the same rabbinical or pharisaical regulations that are placed there. He understood what would happen to someone if they want to try to convert into Judaism, particularly for someone like a Gentile, perhaps, and what sort of teaching they would be taught to follow to fit within the mold of Judaism. Paul knows that the first thing that they would try to get them to do then would be to follow in circumcision. I think that's why Paul first addresses this idea here, where he calls them later the circumcision party, but he also refers to Christians as we are the circumcision, as he wants to make very clear to the believers in the Philippian church that the circumcision isn't a physical sign, that he wants to make very clear to them that they, universally and locally, are the circumcision. Paul understood this idea well. He actually kind of wrote the Book of Doctrine on it to defend this type of teaching and reasoning in the Book of Romans. Paul's very forthright in talking about it. In Romans 2, Romans 3, Romans 4, Paul is putting together this legal argument that it's going to be God's righteousness and it's going to be our righteousness through faith with God that is saving. And it's nothing that we can do on our own that can offer any merit towards our own salvation. In chapter 2, Paul starts to talk about the worth and value of physical circumcision, saying that, well, it has no value, concluding in chapter 2 with verses 28 and 29, saying, for no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter or the law. His praise is not from man, but from God. And Paul is making the case here that what describes or makes someone Jewish, or in this case, regarding circumcision of a descendant of Abraham in this way, isn't a physical circumcision, but a spiritual one, one done in the heart by the Spirit of God, not by the hands of man, and following with the Mosaic law. He even goes on further and hits Romans 4 when he says, all right, I'm going to take this all the way back to Abraham, if that's where we want to go. And he goes back to the source of where circumcision started. And Paul makes the case for Abraham's own righteousness. Where he says in chapter 4, verse 2, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Then if we were to jump down a little bit further. say, verse 9. He sort of continues this thought as well. Go to like the second half of that verse. Before we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness, how then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. And in the Book of Romans, Paul lays out fully this argument that he tries to condense very shortly here in the Book of Philippians, that he's going to use his own life as an example in how to guide and instruct the church in that way. But we here, reading the whole canon, can see what's lying behind Paul's teaching here. That he's going back, recognizing that the physical circumcision of Abraham was just a seal of the righteousness. It was a sign of the covenant made with God that God would bless him and his offspring. And that as such, it did not justify Abraham, give him any righteousness, but it was his faith leading to that that made him righteous to begin with. And therefore, it's not a physical circumcision, whether between Jews or Gentiles, that gives them any righteousness either. But instead, it's the faith that they have. That's why Paul mentions there, verse 12, that even those who are circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. And with that, Paul tries to safeguard, as he said in the first verse, he wants to teach them and to keep them safe from this false teaching. That's what's wrapped up in Paul saying that they are the circumcision, that they are true Christians, worshiped by the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. But the way that Paul addresses it with his readers here is he goes to a more personal narrative of himself. And in verse four, Paul says, though I have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Now, we don't want to think that Paul here is being counter to what he has just told them. He just told them not to boast in their own flesh, and now it seems here like Paul is saying, well, hey, look what I can talk about. But rather, Paul is in a way, issuing a challenge to the Judaizers, those that have infiltrated the church and are distorting the teachings. And they're doing so on the merit of their own practice of Judaism. In this case, Paul is saying, well, if they think they are good practicing Judaizers, let's talk about me when I was in that life, and let's see if they can beat me. Sort of showing that, well, if they're going to trust anyone's word about how Judaism works, and how it now shifts and should change in the Christian faith, Paul's setting himself up to be the one that they should listen to. And Paul gives seven signs or advantages that he has in this way. Four of them, a couple of them, come at his birth, before his birth, and three of them then come sort of in his lifestyle. Let's take a look at them. In chapter 3, verse 5, Paul alludes on this. He says, "...circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews." Those are the four that Paul mentions that come as an advantage of his birth. But I think we need to give ourselves a little bit of context on why this is important and why Paul includes it here. Why these seven things and what would it have any meaning for the audience that is there? First he mentions circumcised on the eighth day. So he first again is tackling circumcision. We do have to give ourselves a little bit of background on Paul and that Paul was born of the Jewish dispersion. He wasn't born in Israel, he wasn't born near Jerusalem, instead he was born in Tarsus to Jewish parents. The Jewish people at this point have been scattered abroad, and he is now in what we'd consider to be modern-day Turkey. And he is there, and he's going to use some of that background in what he's going to talk about here, perhaps. So first he says he's circumcised on the eighth day. This would make Paul a pure-blood Jew. that he and his parents, perhaps since he was eight days old, he didn't really have much of a choice, but his parents followed with the Old Testament Mosaic Law in circumcising their son at the age of eight days old. That would signify him being linked to the promise of Abraham through that circumcision. But also, Paul is making that point here, perhaps, with the Judaizers, because it shows that he wasn't a proselytite, which would be someone who is circumcised later in life, like they're trying to tell these converts to do. He's saying, I'm not a proselytite, and he's also not an Ishmaelite, which would be someone who would get circumcised after 13. He is beginning to outline for his audience his pedigree and his heritage. Secondly, he says he's of the people of Israel. This would pull in that he comes from a lineage of Jewish parents, and likely could even mean that Paul is indicating that he doesn't have any Gentile blood in his family tree, that he could trace back a pure line of Jewish heritage all the way back to Abraham. And doing so would show that he would be a pure member of the covenant people of Abraham, saying that he is a people of Israel, God's people. Then he goes one layer further, says he's of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, because of the dispersion that happened, and Jewish people being scattered across Asia Minor, Europe perhaps, perhaps down into Northeast Africa and the like, A lot of them lost their heritage, culture, and history. Many of them, after several generations, likely couldn't trace back to what tribe they were descendant from, particularly as intermarrying may have happened. But not Paul. Paul knew. He says that he belongs to the tribe of Benjamin. That was also a tribe that was held in good esteem. It was the tribe from which the first Israelite king Saul, whom he was named after, perhaps, came from. He was also a Benjamite. His teacher was a Benjamite. And he could track back his own heritage as a Jew, as a people of Israel, to his own tribe of Benjamin. And then he describes himself, lastly here, as a Hebrew of Hebrews. Now, there's a couple ways that this could be intended. He could be meaning it in a very literal sense, that he's a Hebrew because his parents are Hebrews. Perhaps that is one good interpretation of it, saying that he is a Jew like his parents are. But also, it could likely encapsulate the culture in which his parents brought him up in. Because he's trying to show his purity in being Jewish here. And he's saying that as being a Hebrew of Hebrews, even though he grew up in a land far from where the Israelites are, far from the promised land, he still grew up with Hebrew culture. Hebrew was the language. His parents didn't adopt Greek culture, perhaps. And because they didn't adopt those cultures, it made him that much more of a Hebrew compared to others. And within those four, Paul's already laid out for himself a pretty good resume to build himself up in Judaism. But the last three, he begins to drive the point home even further. He says it's not just because of the situation and advantages he has at his birth, but it's also about how he has lived his life up to this point. The last three things that Paul mentions here towards this point would be also found at the end of verse five and end of verse six. He says, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, and as to righteousness under the law, blameless. So Paul says, not only is he advantaged by his birth, but also, when it comes to the law, he was a Pharisee. He belonged to the strictest sect of his people. He was well-educated. He knew well all of the Mosaic law, along with the rabbinical laws, those extra restrictions that were put up into place to help, in their mind, to protect them from sinning. So he was a good interpreter of the law and the customs that were being taught in Judaism. The second one there, his zeal as a persecutor of the church, that one's a little more difficult for me to understand. So I rely on what Paul says elsewhere. In Galatians 1, verses 13 and 14, Paul talks about this as he tells the Galatian church here. He says, For ye have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers." Paul speaks about his zeal there and how he was almost in a competitive sense trying to excel faster and further than those of his own age. He had a very high-standing mentor in that time who was a leader of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. He was advancing beyond in his knowledge and understanding and likely what he was able to do, so far as getting commissioned by high priests to go into synagogues and to persecute the churches that are there, viewing it as something that is boastful, something in which he took value in at the time of his life. But we also see here that Paul's motivations for it weren't godly. where he's advancing for his own desires and wants, and was zealous for the traditions of his fathers. He wasn't zealous for the things of God. He's admitting there to the Galatian church that his motivations weren't where they needed to be. But lastly, Paul does claim here that to the righteousness, blameless, that in Paul's eyes when it came to the standard of Mosaic law and the rabbinical law, that he was without fault. He says that he kept the law blamelessly, the mosaic and the pharisaical rabbinical law. And like I said, Paul's not bragging here. Oftentimes, and I've read this probably before this study, that's how I interpreted it. That, wow, Paul has a pretty big brag sheet. That he has done a lot of things in his life and he is flaunting them here. But that would go against what he is trying to teach. I think what Paul instead is doing is having that moment of reflection and that moment of competition. He's reflecting back on his life and seeing the fallacies and the false teachings that are in Judaism and one that the Judaizers are trying to teach within the Philippian church. And he's reflecting on how he used to be a part of that, perhaps, or a part of his own zeal and desire to advance in Judaism. And we know Paul's not attributing these works to himself. Paul taught very much against that. Just an example that could be from Ephesians 2, when Paul makes an appeal that it's not one's works that actually saves them, he tells the Philippian, sorry, the Ephesian church, that it's by grace you have been saved through faith, and it's not of your own doing, it's a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So I don't think that Paul's contradicting himself. I think this moment of reflection, Paul might even have a better connection to a teaching of Jesus than many of us do. And although Paul wasn't there for it, when Jesus was going through his ministry and teaching, he wasn't part of the crowd that followed. Jesus taught in Matthew 7, I think my Bible puts it in the, I never knew you heading, and I think Paul understands this well. Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23 read, And on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I, God, will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I think if Paul read that verse, he would see himself in it. Because the ones that are coming and saying, Lord, Lord, are boasting in their own works. They're saying, Lord, look at what I have done. I've prophesied. I've cast out demons. I've done many mighty works. And they're boasting in the things that they've done in their life. And God's response to them is, I never knew you. That's the path that Paul was on before Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and converted him and changed his heart. He wants to prevent the Philippian church from falling into that same trap. That he wants them to stay true to the gospel that he has preached to them and to not give in to the false teachings that works will help them in any way with their faith or with the salvation that comes through their faith. Now when it comes to us, How can we interpret this and do something with it? Well, I think it's easy to say that we also have false teachings in our time, and trying to fit together works with faith hasn't gone away, even after all of these many years between Paul and us. And I think we can take the same encouragement that Paul is giving to the Philippian church, in that, well, we can be warned against it as well. To stay true to the gospel that we have first heard, and stay true to the gospel that we have in front of us. We have a great advantage having the Word of God in print that we get to have. Paul had to memorize the Old Testament because he couldn't carry around a bunch of scrolls. We have an advantage of having the Word of God with us. And I think we can heed Paul's warnings to watch out for those who might try to distort those gospel teachings. Those that would be enemies of the cross. And we should live like true Christians, part of that circumcision that he talked about, and to be those that, as he says in verse 3, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. And perhaps like Paul, we can do some quiet introspection on ourselves, and see, well, where are we putting our value? I didn't get to get to verse seven, because it wasn't part of the section assigned to me, where Paul is going to talk about his view on his own works and the resume that he lists. He doesn't continue to brag about it. He instead talks about it very differently and says that it's of no gain to him, but instead his gain is found in Christ. And I think that is our encouragement, to find our gain in Christ as part of the circumcision and that we should worship God and put no confidence in our own works, in order to seek confidence in our own works. I think if Paul could share something with the Philippian church, he might share with them the same benediction that he gave to the Galatian church. or at least a couple of verses from that section. In Galatians 6, 14 through 16, Paul ends this letter to the Galatians this way, he says, but far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, Peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. I think Paul would encourage us as he is encouraging the Philippian church. To focus on being a new creation. That circumcision of the heart makes them a new creation for them as it does for us. And that is what counts. That is in what we can place our faith. That is what gives us our righteousness. Not through ourselves, but through the finished work of Christ. Pray with me as we close. Heavenly Father, thank you for this chance to open your word together to look at Philippians 3 and see Paul's teaching and his warnings and his instruction to the Philippian church, showing them how to resist false teaching and showing them what being a true Christian looks like. And that's my prayer for us tonight, that we can live as new creations in your Son. To not put any value or boastfulness on our own merits, in our own flesh, but to be those that glory in Christ Jesus and who worship by the Spirit of God instead. As we go from here, I pray that you keep this challenge on our hearts and that you continue to grow us and sanctify us to be more like your Son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name that I pray. Amen.