Good evening. Please be seated. Turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. While you're finding your place, I'll say a few words by way of introduction. In the seventh grade, believe it or not, I went out for football in my middle school. And it may come as no surprise to you that I struggled. But what I found early on was that the greatest struggle was to understand everything that was going on around me. It's not like soccer where you can learn the nuances of the game as you play. You have to come with an understanding of the rules and the ideas. So I remember sometime in the eighth grade saying to my brother, I just realized what I'm supposed to do. I just need to go out and hit people. And he looked at me dumbfounded and said, you just figured that out? But what I was trying to express was something different. that playing football required a certain kind of mindset. It required a certain understanding so that you had a, called a football mind and you're able to play by intuition. That's true for any sport. You're able to just go out and play. You don't have to always think about the principles and the rules and how you're supposed to do this. Well, there's an analogy for us as we look to Philippians chapter 3. Because what we find is that Paul is very concerned about the way that we think as Christians, about our mindset, about how the truths of the gospel form the foundation of our lives, how they change our values and our perspectives. And so if you found your place in Philippians 3, would you follow along with me? And I'll read to verse 1 of chapter 4. 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, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus had made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come to you tonight asking for your mercy as we read your word, as we seek to understand what it is that you would have us know, you would have us learn, how you would have us think, Lord, we pray that you would work in us to increase our faith so that we might trust Christ alone and treasure Him above all things. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I read the entire chapter of Philippians 3 because I want to give you the context in which we're going to be tonight, but we're going to focus our attention in verses 4 through 11. Looking at this chapter broadly, what we see is a passage that's framed by two commands. First, Paul says, rejoice in the Lord. And then at the end, in chapter 4, verse 1, he says, stand firm, thus, in the Lord. And in these two calls to rejoice and to be steadfast in the Lord, Paul writes to them about the mindset that they must have. And so in the middle of the passage, we see that he calls them, in verse 15, to think the way that he thinks. To think as Paul thinks about all of life, about all of his experiences, about all that he had before he came to Christ, and to be transformed in the same way so that they value what he values. So he invites them to imitate him, and in that way, to find joy in Christ, and to be steadfast in Christ. But as he writes, we see that there's a threat to their joy and to their steadfastness. That threat comes in the form of opponents, false teachers. We can call them the Judaizers, and we see them frequently in all of Paul's letters. Very simply, what they taught is that when Gentiles converted to Christianity, They had to also embrace certain aspects of the Old Testament law. Most notably, they required the men to be circumcised. You can imagine how difficult that might be. They might have also required other things like dietary restrictions or observing feast days. But what Paul focuses on is the requirement to be circumcised. We see that in Galatians, for example, where Paul strongly argues against this party. We see that somewhat in Romans, in Ephesians, in Paul's letters to Titus and to Timothy. We see that all over the place, that one of the most significant problems in the first century church was this party of Judaizers, of those who would require something in addition to faith. something in addition to the gracious work of God in the lives of the Gentile believers. And so Paul refers to them in a certain way. He says, look out for them, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Later in this passage, he speaks of them saying, their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. And you see how Paul regards this group. What this group threatens to do is to put a counterfeit gospel in the place of the one true gospel, and so rob the Philippians of their joy, of their steadfastness, and threaten their faith altogether. Paul warns them strongly against them, saying, look out for them. But as he goes on, as our passage unfolds, what we see is that he uses his own example to refute their teaching, And in the same moment, to show the Philippians how they really ought to think. And so we find ourselves in verse 4, Paul says, "...though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also." Responding to those who put their confidence in the flesh. That is, who put confidence in who they are or the works they've done. Paul is going to list his resume, his credentials, that would qualify him more than any of the false teachers. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. What are Paul's credentials? I was circumcised on the eighth day. Of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, of Hebrew, of Hebrews. We look at the issue of circumcision and we say that the Judaizers were saying Gentiles had to be circumcised. But what the law really required is that the people of Israel circumcised their sons on the eighth day of their life. Paul could say, I don't have a second-rate circumcision, I have it according to the law. Not only that, though many of his countrymen had been scattered throughout the Roman and Greek world and had been Hellenized, that is, had become like their Greek and Roman neighbors, Paul had maintained his identity more than most. He could say, I'm of the people of Israel, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, that is, I even know my tribal heritage. I haven't lost that. I haven't lost sight of who I am. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. As Jason Meyer puts it, he looks to his pedigree and says, I have the perfect pedigree for one who would be qualified, who would be able to put confidence in himself. But not only pedigree, as Meyer goes on, he also looks to his own performance. So we see a shift in the way that he speaks, where he goes from what he was, or how he was born, to the things that he's done. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Now we might look at those qualifications, and to us, some of those don't seem so great. A persecutor of the church, that's your qualification? But we have to think about these from the mindset of a Jew before the time of Christ. They valued zeal. They would look to numbers, for example, and they'd look at a person like Phineas. Phineas, who killed an Israelite and a Midianite woman, who were committing adultery, and so turned away the wrath of God. Because of his zeal for the Lord, he was looked at as a model, someone to imitate. Paul would have seen himself in that way, as Saul, as a persecutor of the church. And we look at the Pharisees and we think of the Gospels and how much they oppose Christ. But understand that the Pharisees grew out of the time after the exile, when Israel had returned, out of a desire to keep the covenant. A desire not to be like their fathers, who forsook God, who rebelled against his law. And they were rigorous in keeping the law. And so again, in that perspective, in that old covenant perspective, it was a credential to be valued. Someone who knew the law, who was disciplined in keeping it. He was a Pharisee of the law. He was a persecutor of the church, showing his zeal. As to righteousness under the law, he could say he was blameless. Not that he was perfect or met all of the qualifications. Not that he never sinned. But the law gave Israel a way to deal with sin, the sacrificial system. And in all of those things, Paul could say, from the perspective of a Jewish person, he was blameless. He kept the law without fault. So he puts this forward and says, this was my resume. This is what I hoped in. This was where my trust in before I met Christ. Before he showed me who he was and showed me what I really was. So then he goes on to say in verse 7, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. You see what's changed for Paul. The whole way in which he values things has changed. His whole mindset, his whole perspective on all of life is radically transformed. It's not that he's found something a little bit better and he's kept a little bit of this and a little bit of that. He's turned his back entirely on his former life. He's renounced it all. He counts it all as loss. What Paul is doing here is using economic language. The language of loss and gain. It's like someone who invests in properties or in the stock market, and one investment or one stock is bad, You just write it off as a loss. It's gone. You forget about it. You move on. But the difference for Paul is that he's writing off as loss what the world still considers gain. He's writing it off when the market values it the most. He's selling high and buying low in the eyes of the world. But like the parable in the Gospels, he's like the man who found the pearl of great price. And in his joy, he went and sold all that he had and bought the field and had the pearl of great price because he recognized the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, of gaining Christ. And so all that he had in his former life, this is nothing to him. He can say, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. So as we consider Paul's new mindset, what we see is that his trust has changed. That when he speaks of gaining Christ, at least one way in which he's gained Christ is, he puts it, I'm found in him. That I seek to be found in him. And he speaks about that or he elaborates on that in the language of justification by faith. Look at what he says. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." There are a few things that we see about this righteousness that Paul describes. First, you cannot have both. You can't have it both ways. to be righteous in ourself or to be righteous by the righteousness that comes through faith, that comes from God. It's mutually exclusive. You see that in the way that Paul speaks about losing all things and the way he considers them. I count them as rubbish. And speaking specifically to all his credentials that he had, I count them as nothing. I count them as loss. I count them as rubbish. Why? In order that I may gain Christ. You see those words? In order that the very nature of faith is seen in the way that he thinks about all his former credentials. It's not just mentally he's come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's a part of it. But there's a reality to that truth that changes his life. And so he doesn't just say, well, yeah, I have these credentials and I have Christ. No. because of Christ, and what He's done for me, and the fact that He's died for me, and the fact that through Him, I can be made righteous before God. All of those other things are as nothing to me, and that is the substance of His faith. That I wholly and entirely put my hope in Christ Jesus, in Him alone. Nothing I've done. Nothing in my hands I bring, as the hymn writer says. Simply to Thy cross I cling. And so we see the nature of his faith. You can't have it both ways because faith in itself abandons all self-righteousness in order to be found in Christ and have the righteousness that comes from Christ. We also see that this righteousness comes from God. It's the righteousness from God that depends on faith. It's not something that we just earn in a different way. We had a set of rules that we followed We kept the law and we realized, well, that's not working. And so we have a new set of rules. We have to believe the right things. We have to say the right things. We have to go to church and we have to share the gospel and we create a whole new law. No, no, no, not at all. That's not what Paul is saying. He's saying that it's a righteousness that comes from God that is given to us, as he said elsewhere, freely. by His grace as a gift received by faith. And so the first thing that we see in Paul's new mindset is a newfound trust. He's placed his trust in Christ alone. And as a result, he's willingly suffered the loss of all that he had, all his credentials, And he's counted them as nothing, as rubbish, as dumb, as some translations say. We see a second reality, a second changed perspective in Paul, though, that not only has his trust changed, but that his treasure's changed. He says in verse 9, and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Earlier we saw that he said, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. And now he returns to this idea of knowing Christ. In verse 10, that I may know him. And he's going to elaborate what it means to know him. But what we have to see is this is not merely some mental acknowledgement. Not merely Paul saying, well, I know about Christ. He seems like a pretty good guy. Not at all. It's an intimate personal knowledge. It's the kind of knowledge where we can call Jesus our friend, our brother, our Lord, our Savior. It's a different kind of acquaintance. And that's what Paul treasures, that I may know him. But it's also not a kind of mystical knowledge. Rather, we see the way in which this knowledge plays out in a shared life. Paul says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings. These two ideas help to explain what it means to know Christ. And here Paul doesn't fully expound the idea of what it means to be united to Christ, but it might be helpful if we turn a few pages over and look back to Ephesians to help us see what Paul is saying. In Ephesians chapter 1, just a couple pages back in your Bibles, in chapter 1, Paul is praying for the Ephesians. He's telling them how he prays for them. And one way that he prays, he prays that in verse 18, the eyes of your hearts might be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Paul wants the Ephesians to know the power of God in their lives, the same power that he worked when he raised Christ from the dead. And so in Philippians, when Paul says he seeks to know Him and the power of His resurrection, Paul's letter to the Ephesians helps us to understand what he means there. He goes on in Ephesians, in chapter 2, these memorable verses, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. And then in verse 4, God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. So what Paul understands is that our life as Christians is a resurrection life. We've been so united with Christ in His resurrection, in His death and resurrection, that it explains how we can say we're a new creation, we've been born again, we have new life. All of those ideas come together in this idea that we can be united with Christ in the power of His resurrections, in the power of His resurrection, and in His suffering. To be sure, it's a spiritual reality now. We still live on. in our physical bodies. But even now we experience new life. We experience life in the Spirit. And that's a major part, a significant part, a wonderful part of what it means to know Christ. It's to know the power of His resurrection. But for Paul, this isn't simply to say that it's all wonderful. that it's all bliss and there's no pain and no difficulty. Because to be united with Christ in His resurrection also involves sharing His sufferings and being united with Him in His death. And so what Paul understands is that all his suffering in this life is part and parcel of living out the life that Christ lived and following in His path and suffering as He did. To clarify, Paul is not saying that he suffers for the same purpose as Christ. That is, Christ's suffering and his death was to atone for our sins. Paul never anywhere suggests that his suffering accomplishes the same reality. But there is a relationship, there is a comparison, there is a similarity between the suffering that Christ experienced and our own suffering in this life. You might say, well, I don't really suffer that much. Is this passage not for me? And I just would ask you, you really don't suffer? It's not a question of how much you suffer, if you suffer to the point of death on a cross, but it's how we suffer. It may be through persecutors at work or in our communities. It may simply be the regular experience of life in this world where we struggle under the weight of sin, and guilt and pain, bodily pain, depression. All of these are aspects of this life. All of these are part of our regular suffering. Paul experienced all of these things and more. He was stoned. He was beaten. He was shipwrecked. He was sick unto death. And yet all of these things he regarded as part of his life in Christ, and he was able to find joy in them, because he knew that Christ had gone before him. And Christ had suffered to the point of death on a cross, and yet God the Father did not abandon Christ to the grave, but He raised Him from the dead. And Paul knows that in spite of whatever suffering I face, as Christ was raised, God will also raise me. on the last day when Christ returns. And so he lives in light of that. He realizes that he's been united with Christ and so he's been spiritually crucified and raised with Christ and that one day he will die physically and he will be raised again. That's foundational to our understanding as Christians and that should influence the way that we think about all of life. So Paul puts his hope on this, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So as we think about this passage and we ask ourselves, how does that apply to us? How can we apply it in our own lives? Simply come back to two words that I used earlier in the sermon. Trust and treasure. Trust and treasure. The first word is about trust. If we were to write our own resumes, we would write it very differently than Paul. Perhaps it would read something like this. Raised in the church, baptized before I was able to drive, the son of a pastor, deacon, a teacher of Sunday school, preacher, credentialed from seminary. We can go on down our list and talk about our pedigree and our performance. And we're tempted to put our hope in these things. We're tempted to rest on these things. Maybe explicitly we would never say it that way. But we live and act as though our relationship with God is good. Because our life is good, because we can look back at history and say, hey, I'm doing pretty well. You know, I started off poorly, but I've come a long way. Yet, as Christians, we're never to think like that. No matter what we can list on our Christian resume, as it were, we always ought to trust in Christ alone. as the only one who makes us acceptable to the Father, the only one who mediates between us and the Father, the only one who makes it possible for us to come to the Father and call Him Father. That's the nature of faith. We trust in Christ alone. Or perhaps you look at your resume and you say, it's not that great. I can't claim all those things that he listed before. In fact, I'm a little bit ashamed of how long it took me to embrace the gospel. I'm a little bit upset. I'm a little bit frustrated that it happened so late in life. And I wasted so much time and so many years. Or, you've been a Christian for some time, but you realize, I don't do this whole Christian thing very well. I struggle with sin. I don't evangelize the way I ought to. Every day is a trial. Every day is a struggle. It's the same thing, isn't it? We're still putting our hope where it ought not to be. It's just that we realize we have no hope in our resume. Because it's so bad, and yet instead of turning to Christ, we despair. And all we have to do is turn our eyes to Christ and see that He is merciful, that He is a Savior, that He loves us, and He has said, My righteousness. is your righteousness by faith. Receive it. Trust in me. Rest upon me. That ought to be the whole character of our lives. And it changes the way that we think. It changes our mindset and our perspective and our values. Secondly, we look at our treasure. What do we treasure most in this life? What do we want most out of life? after Sunday passes and we go home and we begin our weeks, do we structure our whole life based on some worldly pursuit? As Paul said later in this passage, are we like those who have their minds set on earthly things, whose God is their bellies? Do we reveal what we worship and what we love and what we treasure by how we act throughout the week? Or do we go from this place on Monday waking up and being reminded that Christ is our treasure? That all I have in this world that's worth anything is Christ, is found in Him. If you're like me, you do a lot more of the former than the latter. We have to have our minds changed. We need to treasure Christ above all things and we need to be reminded of that. Paul said in verse two, to write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it's safe for you. These kinds of reminders in scripture are so helpful to reorient our perspective so we're reminded of what is supremely valuable, of what is of greatest worth. Our treasure should be in Christ alone and above all else. So in closing, as we think about this passage, be reminded that Christ is worth more than all these things. He's not simply your ticket to get to heaven. Thank you very much, Jesus, for dying for my sins. Now I get to go to heaven and enjoy all the wonderful things about heaven. No. The reason why heaven is such a wonderful place is because Christ is there. And we will be with Him when we're there. And in the new heaven and in the new earth, will be with Him forever, reigning forever. He's what makes it wonderful. Paul's goal is not to gain heaven, it's to gain Christ. That's what the gospel is all about. It's being found in Christ, and knowing Him, and treasuring Him above all else. Let's pray. Father in heaven, So often we're reminded that our priorities are dictated by our worldly affections. And our trust is based in fleshly confidence. And as we read this passage tonight and we ponder the truth that you give us through your servant Paul, We pray, Lord, that you would change our minds, change our hearts and our affections and our perspectives, our values, so that we would live as those who seek to be found in Christ, seek to know him above all else. We thank you, Lord God, that you gave us a savior who to us is righteousness. To us is salvation. We pray that you would cause us to fix our eyes on him forever and always. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Let's stand and respond in song and praise to our God and King.